WHICH RISKS ARE YOU WILLING TO TAKE AND NOT TAKE AND WHAT'S CONSISTENT WITH YOU AS A PERSON? SANTA CLARA UNIVERSITY PSYCHOLOGY PROFESSOR TOM PLANT SAYS EXTREME PARENTING IS TROUBLESOME ON EITHER END OF THE SPECTRUM.

Brown last week appointed commission member Nancy Ryan deputy executive director of the regulatory agency, reserving a third seat on the five-member commission for him to fill.

Mike Florio, 58, has been a lawyer for The Utility Reform Network, an advocacy group, since 1978. The group backed a failed ballot measure in 2005 that would have altered how electricity is regulated.

Catherine Sandoval, 50, is a telecommunications expert and an associate professor at Santa Clara University School of Law.

Like Brown, Florio and Sandoval are Democrats.

The PUC regulates California's massive energy and telecommunications industries. Its critics had accused the PUC under Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of pro-business leanings and lax oversight, including in the case of last year's pipeline explosion in San Bruno.

In a prepared statement, Assemblyman Jerry Hill, a Democrat, criticized a "culture of complacency on the commission" and praised Brown's appointees as "thoughtful and forceful advocates for consumers."

Brown spokesman Evan Westrup said the appointments "will help California move toward a clean-energy economy, while also being sensitive to the needs of California businesses and consumers."

Florio could not be reached for comment. Sandoval said the PUC could enact policies beneficial to business and consumers.

"The PUC needs to look at the balance of these issues," she said.

A Southern California Edison spokesman said the company had no comment on the appointments. A Pacific Gas and Electric Co. spokesman congratulated Florio and Sandoval and said the company "looks forward to working with them in their new roles as members of this important regulatory body."

Brown also announced two appointments to the California Energy Commission. Robert Weisenmiller, 62, a decline-to-state voter, was appointed to the commission by Schwarzenegger last year. Carla Peterman, 32, a Democrat, is a Ph.D. candidate at University of California, Berkeley. She also serves on The Utility Reform Network's board.

Michael Florio, an attorney for the Utility Reform Network, is appointed to serve five years. Brown also names law professor Catherine Sandoval to the PUC and makes two appointments on the energy commission. Gov. Jerry Brown on Tuesday named a leading consumer advocate to serve on the California Public Utilities Commission, one of the state's most powerful regulatory bodies.

Michael Florio, a senior attorney for the Utility Reform Network, known as TURN, was appointed to serve a five-year term. Brown also named Catherine Sandoval, a Santa Clara University law professor, telecommunications expert and former Rhodes scholar, to the five-member, constitutionally independent panel.

The utilities commission oversees companies supplying electricity, natural gas, telephone and cable television service to millions of homes and businesses.

The governor reappointed Robert Weisenmiller, an energy consultant, to the California Energy Commission and designated him to serve as chairman, beginning Feb. 6. Weisenmiller has four years left on his five-year term. A second, five-year slot went to Carla Peterman, a UC Berkeley doctoral candidate, solar-energy specialist and another Rhodes scholar.

The energy commission is charged with licensing power plants, setting efficiency standards for appliances and buildings, and conducting research and analysis on a range of energy-related issues.

The four appointees, who must be confirmed by the state Senate, won praise from one of the Legislature's top energy officials, Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Pacoima), chairman of the Senate Energy, Utilities and Communications Committee.

"Gov. Brown's appointments reflect his desire to move California forward in the areas of clean energy and telecommunications while controlling costs to ratepayers," Padilla said. "Given the challenging economy, that makes a lot of sense."

Florio brings 32 years of legal experience in utilities law to the PUC. The Oakland resident has direct knowledge of most energy proceedings at the San Francisco-based agency. His legal arguments at times had major effects on key decisions made by commissioners during the California energy crisis of 2000 and 2001. Florio is an expert on natural gas regulatory law. He has stepped down from TURN to serve on the utilities commission.

"Consumers in California now have a CPUC commissioner they can depend on," said TURN Executive Director Mark Toney. "Mike Florio is eminently qualified to serve on an agency whose mission is to 'protect the public interest by protecting consumers.' His expertise and dedication are likely to help the commission rehabilitate its tarred image."

The PUC recently has been criticized for an alleged lack of oversight of a natural gas pipeline that exploded in September, killing eight people in San Bruno.

In a move that signals a more pro-consumer approach to the state's energy issues, Governor Jerry Brown on Tuesday announced key appointments to both the California Public Utilities Commission and the California Energy Commission Tuesday.

Attorney Michael Florio, 58, of Oakland has been appointed to the PUC after spending more than three decades representing ratepayers on behalf of consumer advocacy nonprofit TURN, the Utility Reform Network. Also named to the commission was Santa Clara University law professor Catherine Sandoval.

Florio, a former blues club owner, joined TURN as an unpaid volunteer after graduating from law school in 1978 and has been with the organization ever since.

"Consumers in California now have a CPUC Commissioner they can depend on," said TURN executive director Mark Toney. "Mike Florio is eminently qualified to serve on an agency whose mission is to 'protect the public interest by protecting consumers.' His expertise and dedication are likely to help the commission rehabilitate its tarred image."

Sandoval, of Campbell, is an expert in international telecommunications development law and policy. She served as vice-president and general counsel for Z-Spanish Media Corporation before joining the university.

In a move that signals a more pro-consumer approach to the state's energy issues, Governor Jerry Brown on Tuesday announced key appointments to both the California Public Utilities Commission and the California Energy Commission Tuesday.

Attorney Michael Florio, 58, of Oakland has been appointed to the PUC after spending more than three decades representing ratepayers on behalf of consumer advocacy nonprofit TURN, the Utility Reform Network. Also named to the commission was Santa Clara University law professor Catherine Sandoval.

Florio, a former blues club owner, joined TURN as an unpaid volunteer after graduating from law school in 1978 and has been with the organization ever since.

"Consumers in California now have a CPUC Commissioner they can depend on," said TURN executive director Mark Toney. "Mike Florio is eminently qualified to serve on an agency whose mission is to 'protect the public interest by protecting consumers.' His expertise and dedication are likely to help the commission rehabilitate its tarred image."

Sandoval, of Campbell, is an expert in international telecommunications development law and policy. She served as vice-president and general counsel for Z-Spanish Media Corporation before joining the university.

SAN FRANCISCO -(Dow Jones)- California Gov. Jerry Brown on Tuesday appointed a consumer advocate and a law professor to the state's utilities commission in two of three closely watched appointments that could affect utilities and other companies regulated by the state.

Brown also appointed two people to the state's energy commission.

The governor appointed to the California Public Utilities Commission Mike Florio, a long-time senior attorney for consumer advocate The Utility Reform Network and a former board member of grid operator the California Independent Operator; and Catherine Sandoval, an associate professor at the Santa Clara University School of Law.

The appointments allow the commission to convene and make decisions during a regularly scheduled meeting on Thursday. Brown also is expected to appoint a third person to fill a remaining vacancy on the CPUC.

With the authority to approve or reject billions of dollars a year in utility contracts, energy projects, and utility rates and tariffs, CPUC is one of the nation's most powerful energy regulators. The agency oversees most of the activities and spending of California's three largest utilities, owned by PG&E Corp. (PCG), Edison International (EIX) and Sempra Energy (SRE), and also regulates telecommunications companies, railroads, moving companies, passenger carriers, water utilities and operators of in-state pipelines.

Edison spokesman Gil Alexander declined to comment on the CPUC appointment process, saying it would be "inappropriate" for the utility to comment "on a body that regulates us."

Telephone calls to Brown's office and to PG&E and San Diego Gas & Electric Co. were not immediately returned.

The CPUC has been investigating, with its federal counterparts, the fatal explosion last September of a PG&E natural gas pipeline in San Bruno, Calif. The state agency has also said it is considering fines for PG&E over a separate 2008 gas pipeline explosion in Rancho Cordova, Calif., that killed one person and injured five others.

The CPUC's two existing commissioners include President Michael Peevey, a former Edison International executive appointed in 2002 by then-Gov. Gray Davis; and Timothy Simon, a former staffer of former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, appointed in 2007.

Two CPUC seats became vacant Jan. 1 after two commissioners reached the end of their terms, and last Thursday Nancy Ryan resigned from the commission. On Friday, Brown appointed Ryan to deputy executive director of the CPUC, a job she held before Schwarzenegger appointed her to the commission in 2009.

Brown also appointed two people to the California Energy Commission, which issues permits for power generating facilities and plays a key role in setting state energy policies.

Brown reappointed CEC Commissioner Robert Weisenmiller and made him chairman, and also appointed Carla Peterman, a board member of The Utility Reform Network, to the commission. Weisenmiller's term had expired Jan. 1.

Existing CEC members include former Chair Karen Douglas, Vice Chair James Boyd and Jeffrey Byron.

All CPUC and CEC commissioner appointments require confirmation by the state Senate.

Yale University law professor Amy Chua has certainly caused quite a stir with her newly released book, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, which claims that Asian approaches to parenting, which are very demanding academically with high expectations for performance, are far superior to Western parenting approaches that are much looser, have fewer expectations for performances, and are overly concerned with the self-esteem, happiness, and the emotions of youngsters. As she makes her rounds in her nationwide book tour, she seems to be softening her stance. Perhaps the change of tune has something to do with the backlash she's receiving from the public, which has come in the form of angry e-mails, accusations of child abuse, and even death threats.

Search for a mental health professional near you.

Professor Chua is a law professor and not a psychologist or parenting expert. Yet her compelling book and particular point of view brings up many issues that most American parents chronically struggle with: How do we raise successful, competent, happy children in a modern, competitive, and diverse culture without driving ourselves (and our children) crazy in the process? Additionally, what is the best way to raise our children when parenting styles and experts contradict one another? Part of the answer to these and many other parenting questions are dependent on what our goals are for our children. What is the outcome that we want from all of our parenting efforts and how much control do we have in securing these outcomes?

As a parent of a teenage son myself, I certainly want my child to be an ethical, happy, content human being who has good , a vocation and career that he loves, and , heart, and behavior that are healthy, gratifying, and sustaining. I'd bet that many parents want the same for their child. Some might also want him or her to go to an Ivy League college, be a professional athlete or professional musician, and maybe be rich and famous someday (in a positive way). Yet, these goals are likely to be just narcissistic desires for us, living vicariously through our children. Research also suggests that children will likely model the behavior of their parents and other important figures in their lives. So, the apple really doesn't fall far from the tree.

In my experience as a college professor and a psychologist who has been in clinical practice for more than 25 years, a blend of Eastern and Western approaches (high expectations with plenty of love and support) is likely the best way to go. Too strict and demanding and children will likely rebel against your demands, hate you in the process, and be grateful for the day that they can get away from you. Yet, too lenient and they likely won't succeed or accomplish much, as well as quit at the first obstacles they face that might frustrate them. There are risks at being too Eastern or too Western in one's parenting approach in our society and many of my clients over the years have struggled with finding the right balance for them and their families. Perhaps this is yet another reason why we have much to learn from those different than ourselves and why celebrating and embracing diversity may also apply to child rearing.

Professor Chua now admits that her parenting approach didn't work with her younger daughter, who rebelled, and that she ended up using a hybrid of Eastern and Western styles. In a more homogenous society such as China, Korea, and Japan, where most children face such pressures, anything less than an A and no TV may seem rather normal. However, when children are growing up with peers who are allowed to have sleepovers and who don't have to practice playing the piano and violin until mastering a piece, they immediately recognize that their world at home is different and perhaps unfair in their view, making it difficult for them to understand the intentions of their parents. Maybe teenagers like Chua's younger daughter faced another kind of peer pressure of her own-to assimilate by being able to talk about the latest movie they saw over the weekend or by discussing the new video game their parents recently bought them.

While wanting children to focus on their studies is understandable, Professor Chua can learn a lesson or two about putting children in sports, scouts, and allowing them to play with friends, as many Western parents do. Being on a sports team or in scouts can teach important lessons about social relations, team work, responsibility, achievement striving, and mental and physical perseverance. Play time with peers can teach children social skills, nurture productive hobbies, and allow for useful stress management opportunities. So, in a nutshell, fusion parenting thus blending Eastern and Western approaches may better than either approach in their extreme.

Thomas Plante, PhD., ABPP is Professor of Psychology and Director of the Spirituality and Health Institute at Santa Clara University.

In a move that signals a more pro-consumer approach to the state's energy issues, Governor Jerry Brown on Tuesday announced key appointments to both the California Public Utilities Commission and the California Energy Commission.

Attorney Michael Florio, 58, of Oakland has been appointed to the CPUC after spending more than three decades representing ratepayers on behalf of the nonprofit consumer advocacy group TURN, the Utility Reform Network. Also named to the commission was Catherine Sandoval, a telecommunications expert and Santa Clara University law professor.

The CPUC is an increasingly influential regulatory agency that has come under fire for being too close to the utilities it regulates. Assemblyman Jerry Hill, who represents San Bruno and much of San Mateo County, welcomed the new appointments.

"Both appointees have stellar reputations as thoughtful and forceful advocates for consumers," Hill said in a statement. "In the aftermath of the deadly gas pipeline explosion in San Bruno, it is my hope that they will provide the crucial oversight that is needed to end a culture of complacency on the commission."

The CPUC's five commissioners serve staggered, six-year terms and earn salaries of $128,109 per year. Commissioners Florio and Sandoval will join President Michael Peevey and Commissioner Timothy Alan Simon at the CPUC's meeting Thursday.

Florio, a former blues club owner, joined TURN as an unpaid volunteer after

graduating from law school in 1978 and has been with the organization ever since.

"Consumers in California now have a CPUC Commissioner they can depend on," said TURN executive director Mark Toney. "Mike Florio is eminently qualified to serve on an agency whose mission is to 'protect the public interest by protecting consumers.' His expertise and dedication are likely to help the commission rehabilitate its tarred image."

Sandoval, of Campbell, is an expert in international telecommunications development law and policy. She served as vice-president and general counsel for Z-Spanish Media Corporation before joining Santa Clara University.

The CPUC employs nearly 1,000 people and regulates privately owned electric, natural gas, telecommunications, water, railroad, rail transit, and passenger transportation companies. Brown has one more appointment to make on the five-member panel, and a spokesman said Tuesday that he'll announce the third appointment when he finds the right person.

The governor also announced two appointments to the California Energy Commission: Robert Weisenmiller, 62, of Berkeley, who was a commissioner from 2010 to 2011, and Carla Peterman, 32, of Oakland. Weisenmiller was a co-founder and executive vice president of MRW & Associates, an energy consulting firm. Peterman is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of California, Berkeley who has conducted extensive research on solar photovoltaic markets and climate change.

In a move that signals a more pro-consumer approach to the state's energy issues, Governor Jerry Brown on Tuesday announced key appointments to both the California Public Utilities Commission and the California Energy Commission.

Attorney Michael Florio, 58, of Oakland has been appointed to the CPUC after spending more than three decades representing ratepayers on behalf of the nonprofit consumer advocacy group TURN, the Utility Reform Network. Also named to the commission was Catherine Sandoval, a telecommunications expert and Santa Clara University law professor.

The CPUC is an increasingly influential regulatory agency that has come under fire for being too close to the utilities it regulates. Assemblyman Jerry Hill, who represents San Bruno and much of San Mateo County, welcomed the new appointments.

"Both appointees have stellar reputations as thoughtful and forceful advocates for consumers," Hill said in a statement. "In the aftermath of the deadly gas pipeline explosion in San Bruno, it is my hope that they will provide the crucial oversight that is needed to end a culture of complacency on the commission."

The CPUC's five commissioners serve staggered, six-year terms and earn salaries of $128,109 per year. Commissioners Florio and Sandoval will join President Michael Peevey and Commissioner Timothy Alan Simon at the CPUC's meeting Thursday.

Florio, a former blues club owner, joined TURN as an unpaid volunteer after graduating from law school in 1978 and has been with the organization ever since.

"Consumers in California now have a CPUC Commissioner they can depend on," said TURN executive director Mark Toney. "Mike Florio is eminently qualified to serve on an agency whose mission is to 'protect the public interest by protecting consumers.' His expertise and dedication are likely to help the commission rehabilitate its tarred image."

Sandoval, of Campbell, is an expert in international telecommunications development law and policy. She served as vice-president and general counsel for Z-Spanish Media Corporation before joining Santa Clara University.

The CPUC employs nearly 1,000 people and regulates privately owned electric, natural gas, telecommunications, water, railroad, rail transit, and passenger transportation companies. Brown has one more appointment to make on the five-member panel, and a spokesman said Tuesday that he'll announce the third appointment when he finds the right person.

The governor also announced two appointments to the California Energy Commission: Robert Weisenmiller, 62, of Berkeley, who was a commissioner from 2010 to 2011, and Carla Peterman, 32, of Oakland. Weisenmiller was a co-founder and executive vice president of MRW & Associates, an energy consulting firm. Peterman is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of California, Berkeley who has conducted extensive research on solar photovoltaic markets and climate change.

In a move that signals a more pro-consumer approach to the state's energy issues, Governor Jerry Brown on Tuesday announced key appointments to both the California Public Utilities Commission and the California Energy Commission.

Attorney Michael Florio, 58, of Oakland has been appointed to the CPUC after spending more than three decades representing ratepayers on behalf of the nonprofit consumer advocacy group TURN, the Utility Reform Network. Also named to the commission was Catherine Sandoval, a telecommunications expert and Santa Clara University law professor.

The CPUC is an increasingly influential regulatory agency that has come under fire for being too close to the utilities it regulates. Assemblyman Jerry Hill, who represents San Bruno and much of San Mateo County, welcomed the new appointments.

"Both appointees have stellar reputations as thoughtful and forceful advocates for consumers," Hill said in a statement. "In the aftermath of the deadly gas pipeline explosion in San Bruno, it is my hope that they will provide the crucial oversight that is needed to end a culture of complacency on the commission."

The CPUC's five commissioners serve staggered, six-year terms and earn salaries of $128,109 per year. Commissioners Florio and Sandoval will join President Michael Peevey and Commissioner Timothy Alan Simon at the CPUC's meeting Thursday.

Florio, a former blues club owner, joined TURN as an unpaid volunteer after graduating from law school in 1978 and has been with the organization ever since.

"Consumers in California now have a CPUC Commissioner they can depend on," said TURN executive director Mark Toney. "Mike Florio is eminently qualified to serve on an agency whose mission is to 'protect the public interest by protecting consumers.' His expertise and dedication are likely to help the commission rehabilitate its tarred image."

Sandoval, of Campbell, is an expert in international telecommunications development law and policy. She served as vice-president and general counsel for Z-Spanish Media Corporation before joining Santa Clara University.

The CPUC employs nearly 1,000 people and regulates privately owned electric, natural gas, telecommunications, water, railroad, rail transit, and passenger transportation companies. Brown has one more appointment to make on the five-member panel, and a spokesman said Tuesday that he'll announce the third appointment when he finds the right person.

The governor also announced two appointments to the California Energy Commission: Robert Weisenmiller, 62, of Berkeley, who was a commissioner from 2010 to 2011, and Carla Peterman, 32, of Oakland. Weisenmiller was a co-founder and executive vice president of MRW & Associates, an energy consulting firm. Peterman is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of California, Berkeley who has conducted extensive research on solar photovoltaic markets and climate change.

In a move that signals a more pro-consumer approach to the state's energy issues, Governor Jerry Brown on Tuesday announced key appointments to both the California Public Utilities Commission and the California Energy Commission.

Attorney Michael Florio, 58, of Oakland has been appointed to the CPUC after spending more than three decades representing ratepayers on behalf of the nonprofit consumer advocacy group TURN, the Utility Reform Network. Also named to the commission was Catherine Sandoval, a telecommunications expert and Santa Clara University law professor.

The CPUC is an increasingly influential regulatory agency that has come under fire for being too close to the utilities it regulates. Assemblyman Jerry Hill, who represents San Bruno and much of San Mateo County, welcomed the new appointments.

"Both appointees have stellar reputations as thoughtful and forceful advocates for consumers," Hill said in a statement. "In the aftermath of the deadly gas pipeline explosion in San Bruno, it is my hope that they will provide the crucial oversight that is needed to end a culture of complacency on the commission."

The CPUC's five commissioners serve staggered, six-year terms and earn salaries of $128,109 per year. Commissioners Florio and Sandoval will join President Michael Peevey and Commissioner Timothy Alan Simon at the CPUC's meeting Thursday.

Florio, a former blues club owner, joined TURN as an unpaid volunteer after graduating from law school in 1978 and has been with the organization ever since.

"Consumers in California now have a CPUC Commissioner they can depend on," said TURN executive director Mark Toney. "Mike Florio is eminently qualified to serve on an agency whose mission is to 'protect the public interest by protecting consumers.' His expertise and dedication are likely to help the commission rehabilitate its tarred image."

Sandoval, of Campbell, is an expert in international telecommunications development law and policy. She served as vice-president and general counsel for Z-Spanish Media Corporation before joining Santa Clara University.

The CPUC employs nearly 1,000 people and regulates privately owned electric, natural gas, telecommunications, water, railroad, rail transit, and passenger transportation companies. Brown has one more appointment to make on the five-member panel, and a spokesman said Tuesday that he'll announce the third appointment when he finds the right person.

The governor also announced two appointments to the California Energy Commission: Robert Weisenmiller, 62, of Berkeley, who was a commissioner from 2010 to 2011, and Carla Peterman, 32, of Oakland. Weisenmiller was a co-founder and executive vice president of MRW & Associates, an energy consulting firm. Peterman is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of California, Berkeley who has conducted extensive research on solar photovoltaic markets and climate change.

Jan. 25--Parkview Medical Center on Monday honored a man whose greatest loves included the hospital -- and water sculpture.

During an evening ceremony that included civic and business leaders as well as Parkview administrators and board members, the sleek vertical water fountain that greets visitors as they enter the hospital's new lobby was named in memory of the late Tom Farley.

Farley was Parkview's longtime legal advisor and a loyal supporter of its fundraising foundation.

"When Tom passed away in August, Parkview Medical Center not only lost a dear friend and great attorney, but we also lost a great supporter. Tom had a great passion for Parkview and the entire Southern Colorado community," said hospital spokeswoman Michelle Peulen.

Farley and his wife, Kathy, generously provided financing for construction of fountains throughout Pueblo, she said, including those on the campus of Colorado State University-Pueblo, the Historic Arkansas Riverwalk of Pueblo, the Colorado State Fairgrounds, at Confluence Park, the Sangre de Cristo Arts and Conference Center and at Santa Clara University in California (Farley's alma mater), Peulen said.

"During his last days at Parkview, Tom asked if he could make a contribution to Parkview. Dedicating this beautiful water feature in the Farley name seemed to be the perfect fit," she said.

Gov. Jerry Brown is poised to disclose a series of appointments to the state Public Utilities Commission and the California Energy Commission, two of the state's most powerful regulatory bodies.

At least four appointments were expected to be announced by this evening or Wednesday.

To the PUC, the Democratic governor was expected to appoint veteran ratepayer advocate and attorney Michael Florio and Catherine Sandoval, a law professor at Santa Clara University and a telecommunications expert.

It was not immediately known whether Brown would fill a third vacancy on the five-member PUC, an opening made vacant by Brown's earlier decision to move Commissioner Nancy Ryan to the agency's executive staff.

There also was no indication of whether Brown would select a new president of the PUC. John Geesman, a former Energy Commission executive, has been viewed as a leading for an appointment to the PUC.

At the Energy Commission, Brown was expected to name Commissioner Bob Weisenmiller as the new head of the CEC, filling the position currently held by Karen Douglas. The governor also was expected to appoint Carla Peterman, a renewable energy expert from UC Berkeley, to the commission.

Gov. Jerry Brown is poised to disclose a series of appointments to the state Public Utilities Commission and the California Energy Commission, two of the state's most powerful regulatory bodies.

At least four appointments were expected to be announced by this evening or Wednesday.

To the PUC, the Democratic governor was expected to appoint veteran ratepayer advocate and attorney Michael Florio and Catherine Sandoval, a law professor at Santa Clara University and a telecommunications expert.

It was not immediately known whether Brown would fill a third vacancy on the five-member PUC, an opening made vacant by Brown's earlier decision to move Commissioner Nancy Ryan to the agency's executive staff.

There also was no indication of whether Brown would select a new president of the PUC. John Geesman, a former Energy Commission executive, has been viewed as a leading for an appointment to the PUC.

At the Energy Commission, Brown was expected to name Commissioner Bob Weisenmiller as the new head of the CEC, filling the position currently held by Karen Douglas. The governor also was expected to appoint Carla Peterman, a renewable energy expert from UC Berkeley, to the commission.

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Hewlett-Packard Co.'s shakeup of its dysfunctional board of directors didn't impress some Silicon Valley observers, and the first big move by the company's new leaders doesn't bode well for the technology giant.

Indeed, on the surface, it looks like H-P /quotes/comstock/13*!hpq Another new board member, Gary Reiner, had been at General Electric Co. /quotes/comstock/13*!ge

Apple's limited disclosure about its ailing chief executive is stirring debate about whether corporate boards should be forced to tell investors more about ill leaders and CEO succession plans. WSJ's JoAnn Lublin explains.

“I agree with the direction, that the board needs to be refreshed, but I am not sure I agree with the choices that were made,” said Trip Chowdhry, a Global Equities Research analyst. “I don't think H-P should be a place where unemployed executives are dumped.” They'll be joining new CEO Léo Apotheker, who as chief at SAP /quotes/comstock/13*!sap

“You are putting four people onto this board who have failed elsewhere,” said Stephen Diamond, an associate professor of securities law and corporate governance at Santa Clara University's law school.

“You hope that putting them together in the same room is going to help lead this iconic tech company into the future. One has to be very skeptical,” Diamond said.

A few of the board members have backgrounds in private equity, including some veteran directors. In the new crop, Dominique Senequier is the president of AXA Private Equity, based in Paris. Others include Reiner and Hurd appointee G. Kennedy Thompson, an adviser to Aquiline Capital Partners LLC, a private-equity firm. Larry Babbio, who joined the board as a result of H-P's takeover of Compaq in 2002, is a senior adviser to Warburg Pincus, another private-equity firm. Certainly they all can play an important role at a company that has been on a major buying spree in recent years. But the addition of more deal makers, plus a report in the Wall Street Journal about a strategic plan in the works by Apotheker, has sparked speculation that the company might explore alternatives for, or a de-emphasis of, its vaunted personal computer and server businesses. Such a plan could be unveiled in March, around the time of H-P's annual meeting. “If they view the PC business as just a commodity business instead of a dynamic part of an integrated solution, then the argument would be ‘Let's spin it off,'” Diamond said. “Basically everyone on the board is a software or services person. There is no serious hardware talent on that board anymore.”

John Joyce, a former IBM executive with private-equity ties, is among the four directors who will be leaving.

Both Todd Bradley, the current head of H-P's PC business, and Vyomesh “VJ” Joshi, the head of the cash-cow printer business, were notably absent from the Journal story, which talked about putting a greater emphasis on “the more profitable pieces” of the business.

H-P's printing and imaging business is still among its most profitable. In the fiscal fourth quarter, its operating profit was $1.2 billion, and accounted for 17% of overall revenue; that's slightly higher than the operating profit in services, but less than software. The fate of the recently acquired Palm, H-P's big hope to make a play in smartphones and tablets, was also not discussed.

Chowdhry is in the camp who believes H-P should exit the commodity consumer business, as IBM did. But while IBM sold its entire PC business to Lenovo of China, he thinks H-P should keep its corporate PCs and servers, which meld well with the company's services business.

In the consumer area, according to Chowdhry, a bold move would be for H-P to build its strategy around Palm smartphones, tablets, printing and the webOS operating system. Palm and its software could become as important to H-P as NeXT was after it was purchased by Apple Inc., said Chowdhry. That deal, which also led to the return of co-founder Steve Jobs, provided a core technology that's still part of the Mac OS.

“Palm has an opportunity to be a close second to Apple, if they launch the products fast, and they go with a lot of marketing dollars behind Palm,” Chowdhry added. H-P is hosting a big webOS event Feb. 9 in San Francisco, which may also include the launch of a tablet. News from that event could offer some hint as to Palm's future within H-P.

It's not yet clear what the game of musical chairs on H-P's board really means. Perhaps some of the new directors have even learned valuable lessons from some of their failures. But the new makeup of the board — with the exception of Netscape creator-turned-venture capitalist Marc Andreessen — seems to lack any visionaries, which is what the company really needs as it tries to re-order its parts.

“We have gone from Carly to Hurd to Apotheker,” said Diamond, adding that he is concerned by the chorus of anxiety that he hears from H-P veterans. The chorus, he said, “suggests that they are losing their ability to make all the parts work together.”

Therese Poletti is a senior columnist for MarketWatch in San Francisco.

" (SOT RADHA BASU, SANTA CLARA UNIVERSITY CENTER FOR SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND SOCIETY)"MOBILE DEVICES SOLVING PROBLEMS IN WAYS WE COULD NEVER EVEN THINK OF DOING BEFORE.01/24/2011Local 6 Today - WPSD-TV

BUT THERE ARE OTHER APPS OUT THERE, ONES THAT CAN HELP CHANGE PEOPLE'S LIVES. GARVIN THOMAS HAS MORE. ("GREEN BROWN" LIKE MILLIONS OF OTHER AMERICANS, JEFF KRAMER IS COLOR BLIND. FORTUNATELY FOR HIM THOUGH WHEN IT COMES TO PICKING OUT HIS CLOTHES, HIS WIFE IS MORE THAN WILLING TO HELP HIM OUT. (SOT JEFF KRAMER, COLOR BLIND)"WE'VE GOT IT DOWN TO A SCIENCE WHERE I'LL BE WALKING OUT AND SHE'LL SAY, 'STOP, ' AND SHE'LL JUST GO, 'NO, ' AND THEN YOU KNOW, BACK IN. " BUT NOW WHEN SHE'S NOT AVAILABLE, THERE IS SOMEONE OR SOME THING ELSE KRAMER CAN TURN TO, HIS PHONE. A NEW SMARTPHONE APP JUST RELEASED THAT HELPS COLOR BLIND PEOPLE SEE WHAT THEY'VE BEEN MISSING. (SOT JEFF KRAMER, COLOR BLIND)"ALRIGHT, NOW I CAN REALLY, NOW THAT REALLY JUMPS OUT. " THE DANKAM IS AN ADJUSTABLE FILTER THAT THE USER CAN CUSTOMIZE TO COMPENSATE FOR HIS OR HER DEFICIENCY. (SOT DAN KAMINSKY, DANKAM)"IF YOU'RE COLOR BLIND, YOU REALLY JUST CAN NOT TELL THAT RED FROM THAT GREEN. " DANKAM IS NAMED FOR IT'S DEVELOPER, DAN KAMINSKY. AN INTERNET SECURITY EXPERT BY DAY, KAMINSKY SAID HE BUILT THE APP TO HELP A FRIEND WHO IS COLOR BLIND, AND IS FRANKLY SHOCKED BY HOW MANY PEOPLE HE HAS ENDED UP HELPING. (SOT DAN KAMINSKY, DANKAM)"PEOPLE ARE TELLING ME THEY'RE IN TEARS. " (STANDUP GARVIN THOMAS, REPORTING)"NOW IF YOU'RE NOT COLORBLIND, YOU MAY BE WONDERING WHY YOU SHOULD CARE ABOUT AN APP LIKE THIS? WELL, BECAUSE IT'S AN EXAMPLE OF WHERE MOBILE TECHNOLOGY IS HEADING. WHAT STARTED OUT AS A WAY TO LISTEN TO MUSIC OR PLAY GAMES IS TURNING OUT TO BE SO MUCH MORE AND WE'RE JUST AT THE BEGINNING OF THE REVOLUTION. " (SOT RADHA BASU, SANTA CLARA UNIVERSITY CENTER FOR SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND SOCIETY)"MOBILE DEVICES SOLVING PROBLEMS IN WAYS WE COULD NEVER EVEN THINK OF DOING BEFORE. " RADHA BASU IS WITH SANTA CLARA UNIVERSITY'S CENTER FOR SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND SOCIETY. SHE POINTS TO APPS THAT TURN MOBILE PHONES INTO MICROSCOPES, HEART MONITORS, HEARING AIDS, EVEN ONES THAT HELP BLIND PEOPLE NAVIGATE CITY STREETS. TRULY LIFE CHANGING, PERHAPS LIFE SAVING APPLICATIONS. (SOT RADHA BASU, SANTA CLARA UNIVERSITY CENTER FOR SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND SOCIETY)"PROBLEMS OF SOCIETY THAT WE NEVER THOUGHT WE COULD SOLVE BEFORE THAT ARE STARTING TO GET ADDRESSED. " AND "STARTING" BASU SAYS, IS THE KEY WORD. IT'S JUST A MATTER OF TIME BEFORE TECHNOLOGY HELPS ALL OF US SEE THE WORLD AROUND US A LITTLE DIFFERENTLY. >JUST AHEAD, WE'LL GET ANOTHER CHECK OF THIS MORNING'S TOP STORIES, THAT INCLUDES A STORIES, THAT INCLUDES A TRIAL FOR THE WIFE OF A FORMER LOCAL LAWMAN, IT'S YOU'RE WATCHING LOCAL SIX TODAY, MAKING NEWS BEFORE YOU GO, TRIAL WILL BEGIN TODAY FOR THE LOCAL SHERIFF, KRISTINA MARTIN, THE WIFE OF FORMER GALLATIN COUNTY SHERIFF RAYMOND MARTIN, IS ACCUSED OF HELPING HER HUSBAND HIRE TWO MEN TO KILL WITNESSES IN HIS DRUG CASE.

At issue is the constitutionality of the Obama administration's health care law, specifically a provision called the "individual mandate" that requires individuals to buy health insurance by 2014 or pay a penalty.

On one side you have the constitutional-scholar-in-chief, President Obama, who says that Congress, through its power to tax and regulate interstate commerce, was well within its authority to pass the law in 2010. Last week more than 100 law professors released a statement saying, "Congress's power to regulate the national healthcare market is unambiguous."

But across the battlefield, opponents of the law are focused on the scope of federal power. They contend that Congress had no right to require individuals to enter a marketplace and buy a particular good or service. "If this mandate is not struck down," says Georgetown law professor Randy Barnett, "we will no longer be citizens, we will be subjects. The federal government will be able to command citizens to do anything short of violating a fundamental right."

Barnett admits the majority of his colleagues disagree with his position, but says that the consensus will shift as the legal challenges mature and the political debate continues.

Status of Current Lawsuits:

Currently federal judges across the country are hearing challenges to the law from 28 states and private parties. Two federal judges have upheld the law, while another in Virginia struck down the individual mandate. In the coming days a major decision is expected from US District Court Judge Roger Vinson in Florida that could balance out the score card. In court proceedings Vinson seemed skeptical of some of the administration's positions.

Both sides have vowed to take their appeals all the way to the Supreme Court and, court watchers are already trying to read the tea leaves of past decisions hoping to divine how the justices will rule.

"Ultimately, the Supreme Court will have to decide the case " says Bradley Joondeph of Santa Clara University who has not taken a position on the constitutionality of the law.

"The lower court decisions matter" he says "because they can affect the political discourse surrounding the law and can also affect the perceived legitimacy of the constitutional arguments. The more judges that strike down the individual mandate, the more likely that argument is to gain traction ultimately at the Supreme Court. "

Bay Area Jesuit Groups to Hold Mass and Reception in Support of Immigration Reform, Feb. 5 in San Jose01/24/2011KIQI-AM

The San Francisco-based Spanish language station KIQI 1010 AM featured a story telling its listeners about an upcoming Feb. 5 mass and reception sponsored by Santa Clara University and four other Bay Area Jesuit groups, focused on immigration law reform. The reporter interviewed Most Holy Trinity pastor Fr. Eduardo Samaniego.

In the wake of the shootings in Tucson, there have been calls for more civility in our political discourse. In Silicon Valley, a couple of groups are responding to that call.

With an eye toward starting a reasoned discussion on the topic of immigration reform, the South Bay's Jesuit institutions -- including Santa Clara University, Bellarmine College Prep and Sacred Heart Nativity Schools -- will be holding a joint Mass on Feb. 5 with the theme, "The Jesuit Family Welcomes the Stranger."

In a letter to the SCU community, President Michael Engh said members and friends of the various institutions will "gather to express gratitude for our immigrant brothers and sisters, to learn more, and to rededicate ourselves, through prayer and advocacy, to comprehensive and just immigration reform."

The 2 p.m. Mass, at Most Holy Trinity Parish (2040 Nassau Dr. in San Jose), will be followed by a reception.

And the Silicon Valley chapter of the American Leadership Forum is inviting the public to a free viewing of President Barack Obama's State of the Union address Tuesday at the India Community Center in Milpitas.

It'll be followed by a one-hour discussion about how the community can move ahead with more cooperation and civility.

To RSVP or get more information, go to www.alfsv.org.

REACHING OUT: The social site dot429 -- sort of a LinkedIn for LGBT professionals -- is expanding its reach beyond the Web with a Silicon Valley networking event this week.

After launching in San Francisco in 2009, dot429 has steadily grown in popularity in the gay and lesbian business community, with more than 50,000 members nationwide.

The cocktail party Thursday will be held at the 88 condos in downtown San Jose.

Registration is $20 in advance or $25 at the door; it also serves as the Silicon Valley Rainbow Chamber of Commerce's monthly mixer, so chamber members get in free.

Get more info at http://dot429.com (and, in case you were wondering, 4-2-9 spells "gay" on a telephone keypad).

FOOD FOR THOUGHT: Tracy Lee, a San Jose State grad, is bringing her startup Dishcrawl to downtown San Jose, and she hopes people will come along for the trip.

The new social website seeks to match people's tastes with dishes they might enjoy in local restaurants.

As part of the Silicon Valley launch, there will be an actual "dishcrawl" Wednesday evening to visit four of the newer dining spots in downtown San Jose: The Mmoon, Psycho Donuts, Ruffled Feathers and the Wow Silog Truck.

The $16 tickets were almost sold out by the end of last week, but don't worry, there's another event planned for Feb. 23.

Get more information at www.dishcrawl.com/discoversj.

STATELY SPEECH: Dave Cortese begins his term as president of the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors by delivering the State of the County address at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday.

The speech, which will be held at the County Government Center at 70 W. Hedding St. in San Jose, is usually a good road map of the issues the board will tackle in the year to come.

The address also will be streamed live at www.sccgov.org.

CONGRATS: Dominic Duong, a San Jose resident and choreographer with sjDANCEco, won $1,000 last weekend as a runner up at the AWARD (Artists With Audiences Responding to Dance) Show in San Francisco.

Katie Faulkner, who teaches dance at Mills College in Oakland, received $10,000 as the winner of the competition, which was partly judged by a live audience.

Got a tip? Call Sal Pizarro at 408-627-0940 or e-mail him at spizarro@mercurynews.com.

Have you learned CPR? It doesn't take long: You brush up on the latest procedure, practice on a dummy and you're certified for at least a year.

Now, have you had to administer CPR? Did you remember everything? Did you freeze? Did you just act, the goal of saving a life and adrenalin taking over?

"It doesn't matter how much you've prepared for it, you're always going to have that moment of panic, that trepidation," said Candice Fuller, 24, who found herself giving CPR to a stranger at a downtown Portland bus stop last year just two weeks after becoming certified. "The key to it is trying to focus on what you're trying to do, the ultimate goal, instead of thinking in the moment."

Investing is not a life-or-death matter, fortunately, but Fuller's experience has some parallels. Never lose sight of the goal, regardless of the chaos of the moment.

Last week I explained the importance of spreading your money around. Mixing different types of investments --stocks, bonds and cash --can boost your rewards while lowering the ups and downs of your returns.

There are at least four things you should consider before actually diversifying, money managers say: your age, appetite for risk, investment style and the returns you can expect to earn.

We're not even going to touch those last two for now.

The most difficult aspect to grasp, even for advisers, is how much risk you want to take. Can you stand to see your savings dive 40 percent as many of us did in 2008 and 2009? Did you freeze and sell your stock-fund shares at the low point, only to see the Standard & Poor's 500 increase nearly 90 percent since then? Or did you hold steady and buy more when many assets were cheap?

"Unless you started investing last week, you should have a pretty good idea of what your risk tolerance is," said William Bernstein, a Portland resident and author of "The Intelligent Asset Allocator."

Or maybe you need to frame your thinking differently, says Meir Statman, author of "What Investors Really Want" and a professor of behavioral finance at Santa Clara University. Start with your goals. They will get you through the next downturn the way they got Fuller through saving a life.

Not saving? Stop reading

But first let's make sure we're set on two things. You need to be saving regularly, whatever your goal. If you're not, these particular columns are a waste of your time.

You also need to know what you're saving for: Retirement, college, grandkids, a house? The answer can influence the risk you're willing to take.

To help think about this, I consulted Bernstein, a neurologist turned writer whose books on finance are cherished by money managers and average investors alike. I also tapped Statman, a pioneer in the study of behavioral finance, or how our brains and emotions influence our moves with money.

Let's start with the easiest:

Your age. The younger you are, the more risk you theoretically can take. That's partly because you have so many years to weather ups and downs. Over time, if you reinvest your earnings, you should come out way ahead.

You've also got something Bernstein and Statman call human capital. It's your ability to earn money over a long period of time. Barring unforeseen circumstances (for which you buy insurance), young people have a steady stream of income ahead of them to sock into savings. It is bond like, they say.

Provided, of course, you do save.

As people age, human capital becomes smaller and savings bigger.

For example, 5 percent annual returns on an initial $10,000 investment will add up to around $73,400 after 40 years, thanks to the power of compounding interest and starting early.

Near retirement, you have much less time to reap the benefits of compounding, confound it. Your $10,000 in five years will grow to about $12,800. And depending on your timing, who's to say you'll be able to fund a vehicle that'll pay you 5 percent after taxes? Instead, you'll want to protect what you've saved so far rather than risking it on investments that can swing wildly.

Which gets us to a more important consideration, and the most difficult:

Your stomach for risk.

I wrote about risk tolerance more than two years ago, in the middle of the financial crisis. Regardless of what the salesperson tells you, you can't get rewards without taking chances, namely the possibility that you'll end up with less money than you expected at a given point. Knowing how you react when things are down will determine how much money you put where and how you manage it.

How can you estimate yours? There are a lot of online calculators, many biased toward stocks or possibly trying to steer you to a specific product. "Those sort of questionnaires gauging risk tolerance don't seem to capture a whole lot," said William F. Sharpe, a Nobel Prize-winning finance professor at Stanford University who studies retirement economics.

Two personal finance professors, interested in research rather than selling you something, developed on online risk tolerance questionnaire at njaes.rutgers.edu/money/riskquiz. It can help.

Bernstein offers a simpler measure. Think back to November 2008 and March 2009, the low points of our nation's second-worst financial crisis in history.

What you did with the money you had in the stock market should tell you about your stomach lining.

"If you bailed, then you've got low risk tolerance," Bernstein says. "If you held steady, you've got a moderate risk tolerance. If you jumped in (buying) with both feet, you've got high risk tolerance."

The silver lining of the financial crisis is that it gave you a taste for how you behave when you're fearful. And fear is a powerful force to reckon with when you invest.

Statman says there's another way to think about it. He says you shouldn't try to define your risk appetite.

"Heavy introspection about your risk tolerance is about as intuitive to people as figuring out the expanding universe," Statman says. "What people do have are goals and aspirations."

Most of us have two goals, Statman says. One is to not be poor. The other is to be rich. Ask yourself what you can't afford to lose before you feel poor. Keep that money in safe Treasury bonds or even bank CDs. The money left over is what you can risk to get rich. It can be invested in stocks.

"Make sure that you know that you have to begin with your goals," Statman says. "What is it you're trying to achieve? Then ask yourself what kind of risk you have to take to get there. Then you have to realize there are some trade-offs."

A person saving for retirement will want to take less risk. Aside from Social Security, there are few alternative income sources for retirement aside from your own savings.

Saving for college might elicit more daring. College students can work, attend community college, get loans or nab scholarships to pay for school.

Saving for an inheritance or to donate to charity might allow even more risk taking. It's bonus money, after all.

If you save $10,000 in a vehicle that earns, on average, 8 percent a year, you'll finish with at least $217,000. But to get that kind of return, you'll have to invest in stocks, which might lose 20 percent in one year and gain 30 percent in the next. Are you ready for that kind of ride?

There's one other answer: Save more. "Instead of taking on more risk, maybe what we should do is clamp down on the goals," Statman says. "Maybe what we should do is eat out less and cook more often at home."

Ultimately, what we're talking about is this:

Get your goals on paper. Force yourself to draft an investment policy statement. I covered this topic last May. It will archive your goals and help you get a feel for your appetite for risk. You can refer to it in good times, when you think your touch is gold (and are considering buying some), and bad, when despair threatens to damage your finances.

You can find sample policy statement forms at bogleheads.com. Morningstar also provides a worksheet and a tutorial on creating a statement in its free Investing Classroom.

If you're giving CPR, you have only a few minutes to act.

"The key to it is trying to focus on what you're trying to do --the ultimate goal --instead of thinking in the moment," said Fuller, the good Samaritan who helped a man who had stopped breathing at her bus stop. "I envisioned him being OK. I envisioned him being awake, being aware and walking and standing. I had the image in my mind. I don't know if it helped, but it got me through."

In a financial crisis, you'll have more time to whip out an investment policy statement to guide you.

Next we'll get to some specific ways you can arrive at a diversification mix that fits your needs and temperament.

Brent Hunsberger welcomes questions about his column or blog. Reach him at 503-221-8359 or bhunsberger@oregonian.com Read his blog at oregonlive.com/itsonlymoney

Salinas-area students weigh options for college | View Clip01/23/2011Salinas Californian - Online, The

Officials urge students to apply for college, financial aid as deadlines approach

With application deadlines for California's public universities approaching at the end of the month, school officials are urging graduating high school seniors and others to apply as soon as possible.

The deadline for both California State University and University of California campuses is Nov. 30. Most private colleges and universities have later deadlines, with community colleges allowing enrollment right up to the start of the 2011 fall semester.

But with a hike in tuition costs at CSU campuses approved earlier this week and an anticipated jump in fees at UC campuses, officials say students applying to college for fall 2011 should learn about their options  and sooner rather than later.

California State University campuses  all 23 of them  are set to have a 15.5 percent jump in tuition next fall, after CSU officials approved the increase earlier in the week as a way to offset state budget shortfalls. An undergraduate student will pay $654 more, on average, for an annual cost of $4,884 in 2011-2012.

Scott Faust, spokesman for California State University, Monterey Bay, said about one-third of CSUMB students are completely covered by financial aid. That group of students will continue to receive full tuition coverage, even after the increase.

"Certainly CSUMB, and CSU as a whole, recognizes that the cost of education is a challenge for students," Faust said.

The new tuition hikes will raise about an additional $175 million annually for the CSU system. And a third of that revenue is planned to be set aside for financial aid.

In addition, he said, there will be an effort to seek money through legislation to "buy out" the 10 percent increase.

"There is a possibility the state will cover that needed increase so that students won't have to pay for it," Faust said.

Public universities boost cost and aid

Meanwhile, the University of California system is also in the process of approving an 8 percent jump in its tuition to offset its budget deficit. Students would pay $822 more per year under a proposal by UC President Mark Yudof. Tuition costs would increase to $11,124 a year. Adding other student fees, the annual total cost totals $12,150.

The proposed fee increases would generate about $180 million in annual revenue for the UC system. And nearly $64 million would be set aside for financial aid.

Moreover, UC officials say the possible expansion in financial aid and an increase in Cal Grant awards will provide enough funding to cover the fee increases of 55 percent of UC's 181,000 undergraduates.

But for second-year University of California, Santa Cruz undergrad Wendy Thach, the increase in tuition next year means more money out of her parents' pockets. Thach's financial aid package includes the Cal Grant and loans.

"The tuition increase will definitely affect me," the 19-year-old business management economics major said. "There is more pressure on me to finish school earlier."

But Thach, an Oakland native, said she has had a good experience at UCSC, so far.

"If classes are full, students who want to add usually get in," she said. "My friend at San Jose State University has had trouble getting into classes. Like most CSU schools, San Jose State has cut classes offered."

Thach said her advice to incoming freshmen is to apply for scholarships.

Admission officials at UC Santa Cruz said students should start their applications as soon as possible. Required application materials include transcripts from high schools and in some cases community colleges, the completion of the system's "A-G requirements": SAT scores and two SAT subject test results, as well as a personal essay  all of which must arrive at the admissions office of the applicant's chosen campus by Nov. 30.

FAFSA application difficult, important

Jim Burns, spokesman for UC Santa Cruz, like representatives of other universities and colleges, urged students to fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid.

"Students who are interested in the quality education that the university represents, even with questions about what their financial aid packages will amount to, should apply," Burns said. "Students will be surprised as to the amount of support the university can provide for their education."

Nathan McGriff, financial aid technician at Hartnell College in Salinas, said high school and transfer students, regardless of what schools they apply for, can attend any of the FAFSA workshops offered at the community college. Earlier this week, McGriff assisted a line of about 10 students with FAFSA questions at the campus' financial aid office.

"The [FAFSA] application is the same for all students regardless what schools they chose to apply to," McGriff said. "All students have to do is add the school codes of their choice in the application."

He said most of the high school students he has helped have never seen tax questions, such as those asked in the FAFSA application.

"If you are going to a community college, fill out the application as soon as possible," McGriff said. "We are in November, and a lot of these students haven't received their money this semester."

He said the reasons behind the backlog include late application filing, an increase in enrollment and a short-handed staff.

Community colleges: an education bargain

Community college is an option for students who are not quite ready for a four-year college, prefer to stay closer to home or are interested in the cheapest source of higher education. After taking the required transferrable units, students earn an associate's degree and can transfer to a four-year school to obtain a bachelor's degree.

Nineteen-year-old Nathan Velez, a third-year student at Hartnell, said high school students should be careful to choose the right classes, with transferrable units.

"It's good to know what your major is early on," said Velez, of Salinas. "You can only transfer a certain amount of units."

Besides being a full-time student, Velez also works full time. But he said he plans to get his associate's degree this spring and is now looking into a couple of CSU campuses and out-of-state colleges as possible transfer schools.

Stephanie Blancas, a second-year student at Hartnell, said she decided to attend Hartnell to save money and stay closer to home.

The 18-year-old is now weighing her options to transfer to a four-year university.

"I was looking into San Francisco State University and the UC campuses," Blancas said. "There is a big difference in tuition between the two systems. I don't know if I will have enough financial aid or financial assistance from my parents to go to a UC."

Private schools offer financial aid to some

While the deadline for public schools is approaching, students have an additional two weeks or a month to apply to private colleges or universities. Although private schools are more costly  with $30,000 to $50,000 annual tuition costs  admission advisers say there is financial aid available for students who qualify.

"Some students are intimidated by the big price tag," said Lorenzo Gamboa, associate director of undergraduate admissions at Santa Clara University in Santa Clara. "But as long as the student merits financial aid, Santa Clara, and any private university, can become more affordable."

Private schools fund their own scholarships through large endowments and do not rely on the federal government for money. However, private schools, like public schools, can make financial aid offers to students that include government dollars if the student qualifies.

Gamboa said about 80 percent of the students at Santa Clara have some sort of financial aid including scholarships, grants and loans.

"Private schools generally place an emphasis on the admissions application to determine whether a student receives a scholarship or grant," he said.

In addition, Gamboa said, parents and students should be careful about what loans they decide to apply for. Private bank loans usually have a higher interest rate when compared to federal government educational loans. Government loans come in two types: subsidized and unsubsidized. While both have lower interest rates than a private loan, Gamboa said, a subsidized loan is more favorable.

"With a subsidized loan, the federal government pays the interest rate while the student attends school," he said. "And with an unsubsidized loan, the student is paying the interest while attending school."

For private schools, Gamboa said, students are usually only required to take the SAT Reasoning Test. Public schools require two additional SAT subject tests.

Advisers: Pick college by following heart

Although the price tag of a college or university often determines what schools students will apply to, most officials and students agree that it comes down to what schools a student sees him or herself at.

"[Students should] apply to where their heart wants them to go," Gamboa said. "I encourage all students to visit schools so they have access to a real-life setting."

Moreover, college officials agree that California's two university systems and community colleges remain relatively affordable when compared to other schools across the country.

"The biggest concern we have is that people will see that fees are proposed to increase, and then they are discouraged to apply," said UCSC spokesman Burns.

Walter Rodriguez, a second-year student at Hartnell, said he has his heart set on a UC.

"I'm currently working on my personal statement," said Rodriguez, 19. "Regardless of the tuition increase, UC campuses have credibility."

Ryan Hughes, a young, spiky-haired computer analyst for the Minneapolis Police Department, pulls up a map of the Twin Cities on his screen.

"Here, here, here," he begins, pointing to six red dots. Each marks a robbery probably committed by the same man.

"And here," Hughes continues, pointing to a dot just northeast of Minneapolis, "is where I predicted he would go next."

Simple as a crime map, seemingly as far-fetched as ESP, such scenes are becoming more common. Police departments from Minneapolis to Los Angeles are turning to the emerging science of using recent crime data to predict where criminals will strike next.

The potentially revolutionary step could fundamentally alter the nature of police work.

The idea is that everyone, even criminals, are creatures of habit. With enough information about past crimes, it's possible to forecast their future target.

"We usually look at the last week and say, 'This is what happened in the last week,'" said Minneapolis Chief Tim Dolan. "Well we've added to that, saying, 'This is what we think's going to happen next week.'"

That kind of thinking has just begun in Minneapolis, but Dolan says it's already paid off in north and southwest Minneapolis, areas that led the city last year in reducing overall crime rates.

The strategy looks slightly different everywhere it's used, but predictive policing relies mainly on a police department's ability to accumulate deep databases of crime information that detail time, location, methods and numerous other bits of revealing data. Crunched by a computer analyst, the numbers reveal patterns.

That's the task facing a crew of five such crime analysts who work out of a second floor office in City Hall. Every day, they pore over recent crime data, slicing it different ways and sometimes using software to crunch it further. If a pattern emerges, they mark it down for consideration on an internal crime map that gets passed along to the chief for his weekly meeting with top inspectors and lieutenants.

A handful of police departments around the country have spent tens of thousands of dollars on more advanced software, or are working with university researchers and technology companies on algorithms to help them spot crime trends. It's akin to predicting where an earthquake's aftershocks will be felt, says a Santa Clara University mathematician developing formulas for such police work.

As for Hughes' prediction of where the Minneapolis robber would strike next? It was made using free software distributed by the National Institute of Justice. The software examines the location and timing of each crime to draw its conclusions. The estimate of the robber's next target turned out to be a mile off. But in the world of crime prediction, that's still counted as a success -- the kind of information that could put a patrol car close to the action.

Hughes, who hopes the Minneapolis department will eventually use more high-powered software for predictive policing, said that his maps have accurately predicted the locations of 45 percent of the city's violent crime.

Businesses such as Wal-Mart have long anticipated customers' needs based on weather and time of year. Coastal stores knew that as hurricanes approached, customers stocked up on bottled water and duct tape. Those things made sense, but looking more closely at customer data and comparing it to weather patterns, analysts at Wal-Mart noticed that customers anticipating a hurricane also bought more strawberry Pop-Tarts.

It's the sort of anecdote that the emerging industry of predictive policing embraces because it shows how analyzing data can turn up surprises, things that can be used to predict future behavior.

The promise of doing the same thing with crime has prompted some large police departments such as Los Angeles to invest in partnerships with university researchers to devise predictive algorithms or formulas. As exotic as it sounds, it's just the next step in the changing world of police work, said William Bratton, the celebrated former chief of police in Los Angeles and New York City.

"It's really the continuation of the evolution of policing," Bratton said.

Starting in the 1990s, when police began using crime reports to identify hot spots, the focus has been on putting police officers near high-crime areas. Putting laptops in squad cars and publishing crime maps helped shorten response time. Now, police departments can quickly analyze a lot of crime data to spot crime trends as they're occurring.

"So after two or three incidents we can put a stop to it instead of waiting for 20 or 30," said Bratton, who now works as an independent security consultant.

"This is potentially labor-saving," he said. "That's very important because as we're going into very tough times with public financing, it's going to become more and more critical."

The hope is that predictive policing will help supplant random patrolling, which studies have shown doesn't work well.

"It's not enough to send people out and expect that they will have an impact on crime," said Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum in Washington.

Narrowing the field

Minneapolis police estimate that half of the city's most serious crime takes place on 6 percent of its land area. Many of the worst areas are under video surveillance, as the city expands its use of closed circuit cameras. But even within those high crime areas, there might be a few blocks that are particularly rough on any given week, said Sgt. Jeff Egge, the head of the department's Crime Analysis Unit.

His staff of five analysts make predictions by printing color-coded maps that show blocks or small sectors where they expect crimes such as burglary, robbery and aggravated assaults. The techniques are less effective for "episodic" crimes such as homicide, which are more random.

The strategy adds a predictive element to the department's CODEFOR program, begun in 1998 to map the city's crime hot spots.

"When we started CODEFOR, we looked at where crime occurred last week," said Deputy Chief Rob Allen. "What we've asked people to do is to focus more on where we anticipate crime is going to occur next week. We've made it sort of future-oriented rather than assuming the same patterns will continue."

It's had its successes, police say.

Last October, two felons walked into the Dunn Brothers coffee shop in Uptown, pistol-whipped one of the two clerks, tied them up in a back room and took a bag of cash.

Witnesses called 911. Police arrived in time to catch the robbers. The two now face federal charges due to their criminal histories.

Fifth Precinct Inspector Ed Frizell said it was no coincidence that officers arrived so quickly. Fifth Precinct officers were looking out for storefront robberies along Lake Street as part of the precinct's predictive analysis.

"The officers of the Fifth Precinct have absolutely made this thing work," Frizell said. "They have total buy-in."

Frizell said he knows the color-coded maps issued by the Crime Analysis Unit are taken seriously by his patrol officers because he sees them taking notes off of fresh maps hung in the precinct.

It's easier than handing an officer a stack of the latest intelligence, said Lt. Jeff Rugel, who runs the Gang Enforcement Team out of the department's new strategic information center. "A commander issuing orders can say, 'See where it's red? Go be where it's red,'" Rugel said. "It makes it very easy to see what's going on as opposed to charts and charts of data."

It can be tough to gauge the success of predictive policing because analysts don't know whether added police presence at predicted hot spots deters the predicted crime.

If a prediction helps police catch someone doing a lot of crimes, the effect on local crime rates can be remarkable. For example, said Huffman, if a prolific burglar is captured, burglary dots on the weekly crime maps will "melt away."

Plain common sense?

Sometimes, predictive policing looks a lot more like common sense than science fiction, said Egge, who gave the example of how his unit analyzed years of data on burglaries that occurred each year during the week the University of Minnesota started classes.

Laptops, GPS units, iPods and other expensive items are often left in cars or hallways as students unpack, and many are stolen.

This past fall, crime analysts Hughes and Susan McPhee came up with maps of the Dinkytown area that highlighted the spots that historically have the most crime during opening week. Then crime prevention specialists warned students in that area to use caution while officers kept an eye on the worst spots. Crimes were down sharply, police said.

Last month, Chief Dolan spoke at the grand opening of a police intelligence center where a few officers can monitor hundreds of live video feeds from across the city on three movie screens. They just have to know where to look.

Dolan said predictive policing has just begun in Minneapolis and will grow as the department becomes more accustomed to it. In the end, he said, it's just one more tool to put police where they should be.

"The most efficient thing we can do is prevent a crime," Dolan said. "Solving a crime is all good once a crime's occurred. It is much more efficient to be trying to prevent crime for a community."

" (SOT RADHA BASU, SANTA CLARA UNIVERSITY CENTER FOR SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND SOCIETY) "MOBILE DEVICES SOLVING PROBLEMS IN WAYS WE COULD NEVER EVEN THINK OF DOING BEFORE.01/22/201115 News at 5 PM - WMTV-TV

MOST OF US DOWNLOAD APPS FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES, AND TO PUT RESTAURANT REVIEWS OR SHOPPING DEALS AT OUR FINGERTIPS. BUT THERE ARE OTHER APPS OUT THERE, ONES THAT CAN HELP CHANGE PEOPLE'S LIVES. NBC'S GARVIN THOMAS HAS MORE. (, PKG, ) NATS: "GREEN BROWN" LIKE MILLIONS OF OTHER AMERICANS, JEFF KRAMER IS COLOR BLIND. FORTUNATELY FOR HIM THOUGH WHEN IT COMES TO PICKING OUT HIS CLOTHES, HIS WIFE IS MORE THAN WILLING TO HELP HIM OUT. (SOT JEFF KRAMER, COLOR BLIND) "WE'VE GOT IT DOWN TO A SCIENCE WHERE I'LL BE WALKING OUT AND SHE'LL SAY, 'STOP, ' AND SHE'LL JUST GO, 'NO, ' AND THEN YOU KNOW, BACK IN. " BUT NOW WHEN SHE'S NOT AVAILABLE, THERE IS SOMEONE OR SOME THING ELSE KRAMER CAN TURN TO, HIS PHONE. A NEW SMARTPHONE APP JUST RELEASED THAT HELPS COLOR BLIND PEOPLE SEE WHAT THEY'VE BEEN MISSING. (SOT JEFF KRAMER, COLOR BLIND)"ALRIGHT, NOW I CAN REALLY, NOW THAT REALLY JUMPS OUT. " THE DANKAM IS AN ADJUSTABLE FILTER THAT THE USER CAN CUSTOMIZE TO COMPENSATE FOR HIS OR HER DEFICIENCY. (SOT DAN KAMINSKY, DANKAM) "IF YOU'RE COLOR BLIND, YOU REALLY JUST CAN NOT TELL THAT RED FROM THAT GREEN. " DANKAM IS NAMED FOR IT'S DEVELOPER, DAN KAMINSKY. AN INTERNET SECURITY EXPERT BY DAY, KAMINSKY SAID HE BUILT THE APP TO HELP A FRIEND WHO IS COLOR BLIND, AND IS FRANKLY SHOCKED BY HOW MANY PEOPLE HE HAS ENDED UP HELPING. (SOT DAN KAMINSKY, DANKAM)"PEOPLE ARE TELLING ME THEY'RE IN TEARS. " (STANDUP GARVIN THOMAS, REPORTING) "NOW IF YOU'RE NOT COLORBLIND, YOU MAY BE WONDERING WHY YOU SHOULD CARE ABOUT AN APP LIKE THIS? WELL, BECAUSE IT'S AN EXAMPLE OF WHERE MOBILE TECHNOLOGY IS HEADING. WHAT STARTED OUT AS A WAY TO LISTEN TO MUSIC OR PLAY GAMES IS TURNING OUT TO BE SO MUCH MORE AND WE'RE JUST AT THE BEGINNING OF THE REVOLUTION. " (SOT RADHA BASU, SANTA CLARA UNIVERSITY CENTER FOR SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND SOCIETY) "MOBILE DEVICES SOLVING PROBLEMS IN WAYS WE COULD NEVER EVEN THINK OF DOING BEFORE. " RADHA BASU IS WITH SANTA CLARA UNIVERSITY'S CENTER FOR SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND SOCIETY. SHE POINTS TO APPS THAT TURN MOBILE PHONES INTO MICROSCOPES, HEART MONITORS, HEARING AIDS, EVEN ONES THAT HELP BLIND PEOPLE NAVIGATE CITY STREETS. TRULY LIFE CHANGING, PERHAPS LIFE SAVING APPLICATIONS. (SOT RADHA BASU, SANTA CLARA UNIVERSITY CENTER FOR SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND SOCIETY) "PROBLEMS OF SOCIETY THAT WE NEVER THOUGHT WE COULD SOLVE BEFORE THAT ARE STARTING TO GET ADDRESSED. " AND "STARTING" BASU SAYS, IS THE KEY WORD. IT'S JUST A MATTER OF TIME BEFORE TECHNOLOGY HELPS ALL OF US SEE THE WORLD AROUND US A LITTLE DIFFERENTLY. COMING UP ON THE MORNING SHOW, IN SPORTS, THE BEARS DEFENSE MAY BE GOOD, BUT THE PACKERS BELIEVE THEIRS IS BETTER.

A NEW SMART PHONE APP JUST RELEASED HELPS COLOR BLIND PEOPLE SEE WHAT THEY'VE BEEN MISSING. (SOT Jeff Kramer, Color Blind "Alright, now I can really, now that really jumps out. ") THE "DAN-KAM" IS AN ADJUSTABLE FILTER THAT THE USERs CAN CUSTOMIZE TO COMPENSATE FOR HIS OR HER DEFICIENCY. (SOT Dan Kaminsky, DanKam "If you're color blind, you really just can not tell that red from that green. ") DANKAM IS NAMED FOR ITS DEVELOPER, DAN KAMINSKY. AN INTERNET SECURITY EXPERT BY DAY, KAMINSKY SAID HE BUILT THE APP TO HELP A FRIEND WHO IS COLOR BLIND, AND IS SHOCKED BY HOW MANY PEOPLE HE HAS ENDED UP HELPING. (SOT Dan Kaminsky, DanKam "People are telling me they're in tears. ") WHAT STARTED OUT AS A WAY TO LISTEN TO MUSIC OR PLAY GAMES IS TURNING OUT TO BE MUCH MORE, AND SCIENTISTS SAY WE'RE JUST AT THE BEGINNING OF THE REVOLUTION. (SOT Radha Basu, Santa Clara University Center for Science, Technology, and Society "Mobile devices solving problems in ways we could never even think of doing before. ") RADHA BASU IS WITH SANTA CLARA UNIVERSITY'S CENTER FOR SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND SOCIETY. SHE POINTS TO APPS THAT TURN MOBILE PHONES INTO MICROSCOPES, HEART MONITORS, HEARING AIDS, EVEN ONES THAT HELP BLIND PEOPLE NAVIGATE CITY STREETS. TRULY LIFE CHANGING, PERHAPS LIFE SAVING APPLICATIONS. (SOT Radha Basu, Santa Clara University Center for Science, Technology, and Society: "Problems of society that we never thought we could solve before that are starting to get addressed. ") AND "STARTING" BASU SAYS, IS THE KEY WORD. IT'S JUST A MATTER OF TIME BEFORE TECHNOLOGY HELPS ALL OF US SEE THE WORLD AROUND US A LITTLE DIFFERENTLY. DON'T FORGET, IF YOU HAVE AN I-PHONE, DROID, OR OTHER SMART DEVICE, YOU CAN HAVE THE NEWS OF THE DAY, RIGHT AT YOUR FINGERTIPS! JUST DOWNLOAD THE NEWS 5 APP, BEST OF ALL, IT'S FREE. THEY'RE SOME OF THE AREAS BEST GAMES OF THE NIGHT, HIGHSCHOOL BASKETBALL HIGHLIGHTS ARE AFTER THE BREAK.

As part of the Observer's periodic series on speakers visiting Charlotte, here are comments from last weekend by the Rev. William O'Neill . A Jesuit priest and professor of social ethics at Santa Clara University in California, O'Neill spoke at St. Peter Catholic Church .

At a time when Hispanics make up half of the Catholics in the 46-county Diocese of Charlotte, O'Neill's speech - "And You Welcomed Me" - was Catholic social teaching on immigration. He pointed out that America's Catholic bishops favor immigration reform, including a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. O'Neill argued that the Bible - from Deuteronomy to Luke's Gospel - stress the welcoming of the stranger.

"Christian hospitality to strangers and aliens ... shaped the earliest understanding of disciples as fellow citizens and saints in the household of God (in Paul's Letter to the Ephesians). Indeed, hospitality - love of the stranger - is at the very heart of Christian discipleship."

"Jesus began his earthly journey as a migrant and as a displaced person."

"It's so important how we pose the question. If we ask: What is my responsibility to an illegal alien? In one sense, we have already answered the question. For in our ordinary English, it is not the person, but behavior, that is stamped as 'illegal.' To speak of a person as an 'alien,' and even more to speak of him as illegal (is wrong) ... It is much better to ask the question: What is my moral and legal responsibility not to illegal aliens, but to my neighbor, my distant neighbor who seeks to come here?"

"Citizens of faith - you and I - can never accept the detention of undocumented children or threats of massive deportation separating families.... Such policies undermine the rule of law and they imperil a person's most basic human rights."

"To be sure, there is no simple or complete translation of our Gospel into public policy. ... A partial translation (can be seen) in the primacy of the command of love - to love your neighbor as yourself."

As part of the Observer's periodic series on speakers visiting Charlotte, here are comments from last weekend by the Rev. William O'Neill. A Jesuit priest and professor of social ethics at Santa Clara University in California, O'Neill spoke at St. Peter Catholic Church. At a time when Hispanics make up half of the Catholics in the 46-county Diocese of Charlotte, O'Neill's speech - "And You Welcomed Me" - was Catholic social teaching on immigration. He pointed out that America's Catholic bishops favor immigration reform, including a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. O'Neill argued that the Bible - from Deuteronomy to Luke's Gospel - stress the welcoming of the stranger. .

Have you learned CPR? It doesn't take long: You brush up on the latest procedure, practice on a dummy and you're certified for two years.

Now, have you had to administer CPR? Did you remember everything? Did you freeze? Did you just act, the goal of saving a life and adrenalin taking over?

"It doesn't matter how much you've prepared for it, you're always going to have that moment of panic, that trepidation," said Candice Fuller, 24, who found herself giving CPR to a stranger at a downtown Portland bus stop last year just two weeks after becoming certified. "The key to it is trying to focus on what you're trying to do, the ultimate goal, instead of thinking in the moment."

Investing is not a life-or-death matter, fortunately, but Fuller's experience has some parallels. Never lose sight of the goal, regardless of the chaos of the moment.

Last week, I explained the importance of spreading your money around. Mixing different types of investments -- stocks, bonds and cash -- can boost your rewards while lowering the ups and downs of your returns.

There are at least four things you should consider before actually diversifying, money managers say: your age, appetite for risk, investment style and the returns you can expect to earn.

We're not even going to touch those last two for now.

The most difficult aspect to grasp, even for advisers, is how much risk you want to take. Can you stand to see your savings dive 40 percent as many of us did in 2008 and 2009? Did you freeze and sell your stock-fund shares at the low point, only to see the Standard & Poor's 500 increase nearly 90 percent since then? Or did you hold steady and buy more when many assets were cheap?

"Unless you started investing last week, you should have a pretty good idea of what your risk tolerance is," said William Bernstein, a Portland resident and author of "The Intelligent Asset Allocator."

Or maybe you need to frame your thinking differently, says Meir Statman, author of "What Investors Really Want" and a professor of behavioral finance at Santa Clara University. Start with your goals. They will get you through the next downturn the way they got Fuller through saving a life.

Not saving? Stop reading

But first let's make sure we're set on two things. You need to be saving regularly, whatever your goal. If you're not, these particular columns are a waste of your time.

You also need to know what you're saving for: Retirement, college, grandkids, a house? The answer can influence the risk you're willing to take.

To help think about this, I consulted Bernstein, a neurologist turned writer whose books on finance are cherished by money managers and average investors alike. I also tapped Statman, a pioneer in the study of behavioral finance, or how our brains and emotions influence our moves with money.

Let's start with the easiest:

Your age. The younger you are, the more risk you theoretically can take. That's partly because you have so many years to weather ups and downs. Over time, if you reinvest your earnings, you should come out way ahead.

You've also got something Bernstein and Statman call human capital. It's your ability to earn money over a long period of time. Barring unforeseen circumstances (for which you buy insurance), young people have a steady stream of income ahead of them to sock into savings. It is bond like, they say.

Provided, of course, you do save.

As people age, human capital becomes smaller and savings bigger.

For example, 5 percent annual returns on an initial $10,000 investment will add up to around $73,400 after 40 years, thanks to the power of compounding interest and starting early.

Near retirement, you have much less time to reap the benefits of compounding, confound it. Your $10,000 in five years will grow to about $12,800. And depending on your timing, who's to say you'll be able to fund a vehicle that'll pay you 5 percent after taxes? Instead, you'll want to protect what you've saved so far rather than risking it on investments that can swing wildly.

Which gets us to a more important consideration, and the most difficult:

Your stomach for risk.

I wrote about risk tolerance more than two years ago, in the middle of the financial crisis. Regardless of what the salesperson tells you, you can't get rewards without taking chances, namely the possibility that you'll end up with less money than you expected at a given point. Knowing how you react when things are down will determine how much money you put where and how you manage it.

How can you estimate yours? There are a lot of online calculators, many biased toward stocks or possibly trying to steer you to a specific product. "Those sort of questionnaires gauging risk tolerance don't seem to capture a whole lot," said William F. Sharpe, a Nobel Prize-winning finance professor at Stanford University who studies retirement economics.

Two personal finance professors, interested in research rather than selling you something, developed on online risk tolerance questionnaire. It can help.

Bernstein offers a simpler measure. Think back to November 2008 and March 2009, the low points of our nation's second-worst financial crisis in history.

What you did with the money you had in the stock market should tell you about your stomach lining.

"If you bailed, then you've got low risk tolerance," Bernstein says. "If you held steady, you've got a moderate risk tolerance. If you jumped in (buying) with both feet, you've got high risk tolerance."

Berkshire Likely to Pay Dividends Eventually -- But Not This Year | View Clip01/22/2011gurufocus.com

In today's Barron's, Andrew Bary presents the bullish case for Berkshire Hathaway and speculates that Warren Buffett may soon be willing to part with some of Berkshire's growing cash hoard by paying a dividend to shareholders, perhaps as soon as later this year. Mr. Bary believes that Berkshire may be sitting on close to $50 billion in the core insurance operation by the end of the year driven by rising cash flows from operations as well as the repayment of several investments Berkshire made during the financial crisis. Without a major “elephant” acquisition, low returns on cash could become a headwind for the company. For a number of reasons, it appears quite unlikely that Berkshire Hathaway will introduce a dividend anytime soon. Berkshire shareholders have been in a similar situation at many points in the past when tens of billions piled up without any immediate use for the funds and questions of whether a dividend would be declared have surfaced periodically over the past decade.

Cash Provides Advantages

We have been critical of executives who hoard cash, particularly in the technology sector, because often a growing cash pile burns a hole in a CEO's pocket and makes value destroying acquisitions more likely. However, in the case of Berkshire, the risk is not so much that a value destroying acquisition will occur than that cash will build up and earn suboptimal returns for several years. With Warren Buffett in charge, many Berkshire shareholders view this “cash penalty” as the option premium that must be paid in order to enable Mr. Buffett to opportunistically pursue investment opportunities in times of distress.

If Berkshire had distributed cash to shareholders during the middle of the last decade, Mr. Buffett would have been more constrained in his investment operations during 2008 and may have been unable to fully fund very profitable deals such as the Swiss Re, Goldman Sachs, and General Electric investments. The Burlington Northern Santa Fe acquisition may have been possible only through the issuance of a greater number of Berkshire shares or by leveraging the balance sheet by more than the $8 billion in debt that was issued to fund part of the deal.

Would Shareholders Want to Compete With Buffett?

One other obstacle to a dividend involves taxes that Warren Buffett would incur upon any cash distribution. If we assume that a dividend would be introduced at a modest level of around $2,000 per Class A share annually (a yield of about 1.7 percent), Mr. Buffett would receive approximately $750 million in taxable dividend income annually which would create a significant tax liability.

Some shareholders may correctly point out that Mr. Buffett's personal tax situation should not dictate optimal capital allocation for Berkshire and this argument has merit. However, one problem that would potentially impact Berkshire shareholders is the prospect of Mr. Buffett having to find places to invest perhaps $600 million in after tax proceeds he would receive annually from a Berkshire dividend. Essentially, Berkshire shareholders would find themselves in competition with Mr. Buffett himself in terms of finding appropriate investment opportunities for large amounts of cash.

Dividends Will Come — But Hopefully Not Soon

At some point in the future, Berkshire Hathaway is nearly certain to pay a dividend, and perhaps a very sizable one at that. Doing so would create a number of benefits for shareholders seeking income as well as reduce the pressure on future managements to intelligently invest the growing amount of cash Berkshire's operations generate each year. However, while Warren Buffett is running the company, shareholders appear to be better off with the current policy in place both due to the optionality created by allowing Mr. Buffett to retain ample “dry powder” for opportunistic investments and to avoid creating a conflict of interest in which Mr. Buffett is forced to invest large sums of money annually in competition with Berkshire due to annual dividend distributions.

The author of this article owns shares of Berkshire Hathaway. The Rational Walk will publish Berkshire Hathaway: In Search of the Buffett Premium in early March. The report will cover all facets of Berkshire Hathaway's business with a focus on the succession planning process.

Related posts:

Should Berkshire Pay a Dividend? Should Berkshire Hathaway pay a dividend? My view is that...

Technology CEOs View Dividends as Sign of Defeat Few examples in stock market history more clearly illustrate the...

Revisiting Burlington Northern's Plans for Capex As we discussed last week in our coverage of Berkshire...

Start the New Year With an Investment Report Card The start of a new year is an excellent time...

Ravi Nagarajan is a private investor and Editor of The Rational Walk website. Ravi focuses on applying value investing techniques to find securities trading well below intrinsic business value. Ravi has over 15 years of experience in the financial markets and started investing on a full time basis in 2009. From 1996 to 2009, Ravi held a number of technical and executive level positions in the commercial software industry. Ravi graduated Summa Cum Laude from Santa Clara University with a degree in finance. Visit his website The Rational Walk

Irwin, D.A.: Peddling Protectionism: Smoot-Hawley and the Great Depression.:

"An astute and well-told account of a law more often invoked than understood, Irwin's examination of the Smoot-Hawley Act explains how--for good or ill--Congress lost its credibility as a maker of trade law. A valuable book for anyone who wants to understand the Great Depression and whether it could come back."

--Eric Rauchway, author of Blessed Among Nations and The Great Depression and the New Deal: A Very Short Introduction

"Douglas Irwin's elegant and sophisticated account of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff clears up some powerful and persistent myths. As Irwin shows, the tariff didn't begin with congressional logrolling (though that contributed substantially to the eventual outcome), it didn't cause the stock market panic of October 1929, and it didn't cause the Great Depression (but neither did it counteract deflation from abroad as some Keynesians and monetarists have claimed). And many of the book's details are fascinating and even bizarrely amusing."

"Economists and economic historians have closely examined the Smoot-Hawley Tariff over the past few decades, but no one before Douglas Irwin has pulled together such a wide-ranging body of evidence to give us a solid and detailed understanding of the passage and impact of the bill. Understanding the Great Depression has become even more important since the global financial crisis, and that makes this book very timely. Brief, accessible, and clear, Peddling Protectionism should appeal to a wide range of readers."

--Robert Whaples, Wake Forest University

"It would not surprise me if this became the definitive economic history of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff. Synthesizing and fleshing out the best research and nicely connecting economics and politics, Peddling Protectionism provides a fuller accounting of, and a deeper perspective on, what is arguably the best-known U.S. tariff of the twentieth century."

--Kris Mitchener, Leavey School of Business, Santa Clara University

Damned if I can think of who the "Keynesians and monetarists" are who claimed that Smoot-Hawley was stimulative by "counteract[ing] deflation from abroad." I was always taught by Keynesians and monetarists that Smoot-Hawley and retaliative moves by other countries together administered a contractionary supply shock to the world economy--although not one big enough to make the Great Depression great...

The appointment of Nancy Ryan as deputy executive director of the Public Utilities Commission is Round One of Gov. Brown's long-anticipated plan to dramatically change the direction of the powerful panel. His other moves may unfold within the next week.

By shifting Ryan, a commission member, to the executive staff, Brown has three slots to fill – and, potentially, even four – on the five-member body that regulates communications, energy generation, railroads, furniture movers and more. The ability of a governor to make such changes in such a short span of time is unprecedented.

Front-running contenders for those positions include John Geesman, a former member and executive officer of the California Energy Commission, who took a leading role in the opposition campaign against Proposition 16, a June ballot measure pushed by Pacific Gas and Electric Co. to limit the creation of local, municipally owned utilities. Former state Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, also has been mentioned as contender, and his selection is being pushed by San Joaquin Valley interests. The potential for changes at the PUC -- and the energy commission -- were detailed in a Nov. 11 story in Capitol Weekly.

Other contenders – all consumer advocates -- include Michael Florio, a veteran consumer lawyer and ratepayer activist who served on the board of the Independent System Operator during the state's electricity crisis. The potential appointees, reported Jan. 7 in the Los Angeles Times, include Catherine Sandoval, a Santa Clara University law professor and telecommunications expert; Jack McNally, a retired business official for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers; and Julia Levin, a former state energy commissioner and environmental attorney at the California attorney general's office.

The terms of two commissioners Dian Grueneich and John Bohn, expired in December. Ryan, appointed a year ago, had to be confirmed this week by the Senate this week to remain on the commission. The Senate did not hold confirmation hearings, and Brown put Ryan -- who submitted her resignation Thursday -- on the commission staff, thus leaving a third vacancy that Brown can fill. Ryan's new position does not require Senate confirmation.

Potentially, a fourth seat may become vacant.

The president of the PUC is Michael Peevey, a veteran utility executive. Peevey's term expires in 2014, and he is expected to stay on the commission – unless Brown appoints a new PUC president. Peevey serves a fixed term and Brown cannot change it, but Brown does have the power to name another commissioner – Geesman, for example -- as president. If that happens, Peevey may step down.

All were appointed or reappointed to staggered, six-year terms by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican.

Brown has not offered specifics about his plans. On Friday, his office said only that “aadditional appointments to the Commission will be announced in the days ahead.”

At the California Energy Commission, changes loom also. Two vacancies exist on the five-member panel, and the term of a third, Jeffrey Byron, expires this month.

Brown will also have an opportunity to appoint new members as terms expire during his administration.

In addition, Brown reportedly is interested in streamlining energy regulation and eliminating duplication, although few details were available. But given the state's enormous budget problems, he is likely to find a support in the Legislature for downsizing the bureaucracy and combining state functions.

Brown is no stranger to dealing with the CEC. The commission started up operation in January 1975 as Brown began serving his first term, and he appointed its original members 35 years ago.

As any fashion lover knows, San Francisco is hard to beat. It is where the urban meets the classic. Where the bohemian meets the business woman. Take a walk down Market and get lost in a sea of shops. Then take a left up Powell to Union Square and find a quad of fashion's finest. Wander along Fillmore, Sacramento or Hayes and try not to find what you want. Pretty much anything can be found in this treasure chest of a city.

However, for those who have an appreciation for the old and the used, Torso Vintages is the place to go.

Fur coats, leather jackets and dresses from every decade line the walls of the store. In the middle of the shop, find crocodile heels, gold satin clutches and beaded handbags. To your right, discover an entire wall of jewelry, from '20s showgirls earrings to '70s gold-plated Mexican cuffs.

Some of their collection: http://www.torsovintages.com/gallery.htm

Torso is on Sutter, between Stockton and Grant.

Natalie packs a pint-sized punch of San Francisco smarts, sass, and style. She graduated from Santa Clara University, pulled up her SF roots and...

...were roughly twice as expensive as they had been when individual investors told the Fed they were a "gamble." "When is the last time you heard somebody say, 'Any dip in the stock market is a buying opportunity'?" asks Meir Statman, a finance professor at Santa Clara University. Perhaps the so-called smart money shouldn't be too smug in assuming that small investors are ready to play the patsy again anytime soon. Who, then, will buy from the sellers? That question should worry bulls and bears...

" (SOT Radha Basu, Santa Clara University Center for Science, Technology, and Society)"Mobile devices solving problems in ways we could never even think of doing before.01/21/201111 Today at 5 AM - KKCO-TV

EXTENDED WEATHERTOSS TO STANDING SETBERNIE MOST OF US DOWNLOAD APPS FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES, AND TO PUT RESTAURANT REVIEWS OR SHOPPING DEALS AT OUR FINGERTIPS. DEB BUT THERE ARE OTHER APPS OUT THERE, ONES THAT CAN HELP CHANGE PEOPLE'S LIVES. GARVIN THOMAS HAS MORE nats: "green brown" IS COLOR BLIND. FORTUNATELY FOR HIM THOUGH WHEN IT COMES TO PICKING OUT HIS CLOTHES, HIS WIFE IS MORE THAN WILLING TO HELP HIM OUT. LIKE MILLIONS OF OTHER AMERICANS, JEFF KRAMER (SOT Jeff Kramer, Color Blind)"We've got it down to a science where I'll be walking out and she'll say, 'Stop, ' and she'll just go, 'No, ' and then you know, back in. " BUT NOW WHEN SHE'S NOT AVAILABLE, THERE IS SOMEONE OR SOME THING ELSE KRAMER CAN TURN TO, HIS PHONE. A NEW SMARTPHONE APP JUST RELEASED THAT HELPS COLOR BLIND PEOPLE SEE WHAT THEY'VE BEEN MISSING. (SOT Jeff Kramer, Color Blind)"Alright, now I can really, now that really jumps out. " THE DANKAM IS AN ADJUSTABLE FILTER THAT THE USER CAN CUSTOMIZE TO COMPENSATE FOR HIS OR HER DEFICIENCY. (SOT Dan Kaminsky, DanKam)"If you're color blind, you really just can not tell that red from that green. " DANKAM IS NAMED FOR IT'S DEVELOPER, DAN KAMINSKY. AN INTERNET SECURITY EXPERT BY DAY, KAMINSKY SAID HE BUILT THE APP TO HELP A FRIEND WHO IS COLOR BLIND, AND IS FRANKLY SHOCKED BY HOW MANY PEOPLE HE HAS ENDED UP HELPING. "People are telling me they're in tears. " (STANDUP Garvin Thomas, Reporting)"Now if you're not colorblind, you may be wondering why you should care about an app like this? Well, because it's an example of where mobile technology is heading. What started out as a way to listen to music or play games is turning out to be so much more and we're just at the beginning of the revolution. " (SOT Radha Basu, Santa Clara University Center for Science, Technology, and Society)"Mobile devices solving problems in ways we could never even think of doing before. " RADHA BASU IS WITH SANTA CLARA UNIVERSITY'S CENTER FOR SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND SOCIETY. SHE POINTS TO APPS THAT TURN MOBILE PHONES INTO MICROSCOPES, HEART MONITORS, HEARING AIDS, EVEN ONES THAT HELP BLIND PEOPLE NAVIGATE CITY STREETS. TRULY LIFE CHANGING, PERHAPS LIFE SAVING APPLICATIONS. "Problems of society that we never thought we could solve before that are starting to get addressed. " AND "STARTING" BASU SAYS, IS THE KEY WORD. IT'S JUST A MATTER OF TIME BEFORE TECHNOLOGY HELPS ALL OF US SEE THE WORLD AROUND US A LITTLE DIFFERENTLY. BERNIE IT'S NOW TIME, COMING UP ON 11 NEWS LIVE TODAY, GRAND JUNCTION CITY COUNCIL HOLDS AN EMERGENCY MEETING TO DISCUSS THE FUTURE OF FOOD SERVICE AT TWO OF THE CITY'S GOLF COURSES, DETAILS COMING UP, DEB AND, MESA COUNTY LIBRARY HAVE ANNOUNCED THEIR SELECTION FOR THIS YEARS ONE BOOK ONE MESA COUNTY PROGRAM, YOU'RE WATCHING 11 NEWS LIVE TODAY, BERNIE IT LOOKS LIKE WE'VE GOT SOME NEW DETAILS ON THIS ACCIDENT WE'VE BEEN FOLLOWING THIS MORNING, DEB 11 NEWS REPORTER CECILE JULIETTE JOINS US LIVE IN THE STUDIO, CECILE WHAT'S THE LATEST?

Most of us download apps for entertainment purposes, and to get those restaurant reviews or shopping deals at our fingertips. But as Garvin Thomas shows us -there are other apps out there ones that can help change people s lives. """" nats: "green brown" LIKE MILLIONS OF OTHER AMERICANS, JEFF KRAMER IS COLOR BLIND. FORTUNATELY FOR HIM THOUGH WHEN IT COMES TO PICKING OUT HIS CLOTHES, HIS WIFE IS MORE THAN WILLING TO HELP HIM OUT. "We ve got it down to a science where I ll be walking out and she ll say, Stop, and she ll just go, No, and then you know, back in. " BUT NOW WHEN SHE S NOT AVAILABLE, THERE IS SOMEONE OR SOME THING ELSE KRAMER CAN TURN TO, HIS PHONE. A NEW SMARTPHONE APP JUST RELEASED THAT HELPS COLOR BLIND PEOPLE SEE WHAT THEY VE BEEN MISSING. "Alright, now I can really, now that really jumps out. " THE DANKAM IS AN ADJUSTABLE FILTER THAT THE USER CAN CUSTOMIZE TO COMPENSATE FOR HIS OR HER DEFICIENCY. "If you re color blind, you really just can not tell that red from that green. " DANKAM IS NAMED FOR IT S DEVELOPER, DAN KAMINSKY. AN INTERNET SECURITY EXPERT BY DAY, KAMINSKY SAID HE BUILT THE APP TO HELP A FRIEND WHO IS COLOR BLIND, AND IS FRANKLY SHOCKED BY HOW MANY PEOPLE HE HAS ENDED UP HELPING. "People are telling me they re in tears. " "Now if you re not colorblind, you may be wondering why you should care about an app like this? Well, because it s an example of where mobile technology is heading. What started out as a way to listen to music or play games is turning out to be so much more and we re just at the beginning of the revolution. " "Mobile devices solving problems in ways we could never even think of doing before. " RADHA BASU IS WITH SANTA CLARA UNIVERSITY S CENTER FOR SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND SOCIETY. SHE POINTS TO APPS THAT TURN MOBILE PHONES INTO MICROSCOPES, HEART MONITORS, HEARING AIDS, EVEN ONES THAT HELP BLIND PEOPLE NAVIGATE CITY STREETS. TRULY LIFE CHANGING, PERHAPS LIFE SAVING APPLICATIONS. "Problems of society that we never thought we could solve before that are starting to get addressed. " AND "STARTING" BASU SAYS, IS THE KEY WORD. IT S JUST A MATTER OF TIME BEFORE TECHNOLOGY HELPS ALL OF US SEE THE WORLD AROUND US A LITTLE DIFFERENTLY. The time is now . The time is now . A convenience store clerk stands up to an armed robber. What happened after she wrestled the gun away from the guy, when Ozarks Today returns.

New Roles Will Continue to Fuel Electrical Contractor's Fastest-Growing Division

San Jose, CA, January 21, 2011 - Cupertino Electric, Inc. (CEI) announced that former Vice President of Energy Alternatives John Curcio has been promoted to chief commercial officer to drive the company's commercial strategy in new and existing markets to meet long-term corporate objectives. Taking over Curcio's role in the Energy Alternatives Division as vice president of operations is former Vice President of Pre-Construction and Estimating Paul Aggarwal.

“Since founding the Energy Alternatives Division in 2007, John has exponentially grown the division's revenue by leveraging our EPC capabilities and focusing on Design/Build projects that demonstrate our technical expertise,” said John Boncher, president and chief executive officer of CEI. “In addition, John has successfully completed a series of large-scale projects that showcase our ability to safely complete complex systems in a short period of time. Adding Paul's management and operational expertise to the Energy Alternatives Division allows John to do what he does best: identify and capitalize on new opportunities.”

Prior to becoming chief commercial officer, Curcio oversaw CEI's Energy Alternatives Division as vice president. Under Curcio's leadership, the Division's revenue grew twenty-fold in a three-year period. In his new position, Curcio will expand his strategic role to identify and execute opportunities in new and existing markets to help fuel CEI's growth.

Curcio joined CEI in 1993 and has served in high-level engineering, estimating and project management roles. While a project manager, he oversaw more than $170 million of installed electrical systems. Prior to joining CEI, Curcio worked at a national consulting engineering firm. He began his career as a consulting engineer designing electrical distribution, lighting and Life Safety Systems for brokerage and banking trading floors and high-rise office and hotel clients in Manhattan, New York. He holds a bachelor's degree in Architectural Engineering from Pennsylvania State University, is a licensed professional electrical engineer in seven states and is a U.S. Green Building Council LEED® Accredited Professional.

About Paul Aggarwal

Aggarwal has spent more than two decades in the electrical construction industry. In his previous role as vice president of pre-construction and estimating at CEI, Aggarwal perfected his budget management and competitive intelligence skills. He joined CEI as an estimator more than 20 years ago and served in project management. He became vice president of estimating in 2005 and has overseen many large, complex, mission-critical projects for industry-leading clients on the Fortune 500 list. Aggarwal holds a bachelor's degree in Industrial Technology from San Jose State University and a master's degree in business administration from Santa Clara University.

About Cupertino Electric, Inc.

Cupertino Electric, Inc. (CEI) is a national engineering and construction company headquartered in San Jose, Calif. With a 56-year history of open and honest dealings with customers, vendors, contractors and employees, CEI specializes in technically complex, mission-critical, schedule-challenged, private, commercial and public works projects. CEI's Energy Alternatives Division analyzes, engineers, procures, finances, constructs, maintains and operates solar and alternative energy solutions. For more information, visit www.cei.com.

SPOKANE, Wash. (Jan. 20, 2011 www.GoZags.com) Sophomore Meghan Winters drained four 3-pointers and finished with a career-high 14 points to help the Gonzaga University women's basketball team defeat visiting Santa Clara University 89-53 in a West Coast Conference game Thursday evening at the McCarthey Athletic Center. Winters, who bested her previous career-high by three points, finished the game draining 5-of-9 from the floor, including 4-of-6 3-pointers, of which all four made 3-pointers came in the first half, for her new career-high.

With the win, the Bulldogs improved to 16-4 overall and a perfect 4-0 in league play, while the Broncos, who are coached by former Zag player and assistant coach Jennifer Mountain, fell to 6-12 overall and 2-2 in the WCC.

All 13 players saw action for Gonzaga in the 36-point victory, including freshman Stephanie Golden who had a career-high night of her own, sinking 4-of-6 from the field and nailing 1-of-2 at the charity stripe for nine points.

"It was nice to get everybody in," explained GU head coach Kelly Graves after the contest. "Everybody had an opportunity. I thought our defense was terrific especially in the first half. It's hard sometimes to keep that intensity up which was obvious in the second half. I didn't think we did a great job but we ran 13 players in and out and that's tough to keep any continuity."

Gonzaga went into the locker room with the 53-16 advantage. The 16 points scored by the Broncos in the opening 20 was the lowest scoring output by an opponent in a half this season. The Bulldogs hit 47.8 percent (22-of-46) in the first half, had 19 points off second chance opportunities and 21 off of the Broncos 18 turnovers.

The game was tied at 4-4 early in the contest but an 11-0 run gave Gonzaga a double-digit lead at the 15:34 mark. The Bulldogs used another big run later in the half, this one a 19-0 run that spanned 8:01, to grab the insurmountable 51-14 edge with 2:59 remaining. Winters started the run with a 3-pointer and ended the run with back-to-back 3-pointers.

Santa Clara came out strong in the second half, using a 13-5 run out of the gates to slice Gonzaga's advantage to 58-29. Meagan Fulps was the catalyst during the push for the Broncos, scoring nine of the 13 points.

"We have struggled in the second half in WCC play," stated Graves. "It's an area we have got to get better at. We've been up in all four games, three by a large margin, at halftime and we haven't done a great job in the second. But the fact that we are building a 30-plus point lead in the first half is significant and that's human nature to maybe let down a little bit in the second half. We got to get better at it."

The Bulldogs did go on a 16-3 run of their own after the Broncos run to push to their lead above 40-points with 9:15 remaining. Gonzaga's largest lead of the contest was 45, secured twice, the last coming at the 7:11 mark on a jumper by senior Claire Raap.

The Zags were led by senior Courtney Vandersloot who had a game-high 21 points. She also dished out nine assists and made five steals. Junior Kayla Standish added 18 points, nine rebounds and three steals, while classmate Katelan Redmon chipped in 10 rebounds, seven boards and four dimes.

On the game, Gonzaga shot 48.1 percent (37-of-77) from the floor, out rebounded Santa Clara 45-30 and scored 25 points off of the Broncos 23 turnovers.

SCU was led by Ashley Armstrong with 15 points.

Gonzaga returns to action Saturday when it hosts the University of San Francisco. Game time is set for 2 p.m. "It's going to be a good game," said Graves about GU's game against USF Saturday. "I think they have talent and athletic ability. I think Coach (Jennifer) Azzi's going to do a good job with them. I anticipate they are going to play hard. We're going to have to play well but if we play like we did tonight and defend well I think we will be fine."

In its biggest board shake-up since the 2006 scandal over "pretexting" reporters' phone records, Hewlett-Packard named five new directors on Thursday -- including former eBay chief executive Meg Whitman -- while announcing that four current board members will not stand for re-election.

The changes come as the world's largest tech company appears determined to move into a new era after last summer's ouster of former CEO Mark Hurd, in a scandal over his personal relationship with a part-time marketing contractor. HP named a new CEO, veteran software executive Leo Apotheker, and board chairman, Ray Lane, last fall.

"After bringing Leo on, the board felt that we had closed a chapter," Lane told the Mercury News on Thursday. He said directors agreed it was time to "look forward" and "refresh the board" with new members who have experience in both international, consumer and commercial technology markets.

In addition to Whitman, who ran unsuccessfully as the Republican candidate for California governor last year, the new directors are: Shumeet Banerji, the CEO of Booz & Company; Gary Reiner, a former executive at General Electric; Patricia Russo, a former CEO of Alcatel-Lucent; and Dominique Senequier, CEO of AXA Private Equity.

Incumbent HP directors Joel Hyatt, John Joyce, Robert Ryan and Lucille Salhany will not seek re-election to the board at the company's annual shareholder meeting in March, the company said in a

statement.

The move drew a positive response from some analysts who follow the company. "They're cleaning house and moving forward rapidly," said Brian Marshall, an investment analyst at Gleacher & Co.

But corporate governance experts said it's highly unusual for a company to name so many new board members at once. The new appointments, along with Lane and Apotheker, mean that seven of the company's 13 directors will have joined the board in the last six months.

"This is a pretty big shift for any company," said Stephen Diamond, a law professor at Santa Clara University. "It suggests that this is still an unsettled business, and the leadership structure is still a little unsettled."

Of the five new directors, only Whitman is an executive from Silicon Valley, Diamond noted. "It will take time for the board to get to know each other. My concern is it will extend the time frame in which Apotheker is attempting to establish clear leadership."

Lane and Apotheker, however, said they believe the company will benefit from the new additions. "Each is a widely respected and deeply experienced business leader, and together they will provide our board and management team with new insight and perspectives relating to HP's business and the rapidly changing technology industry," Lane said in a statement.

In a later interview, Lane said it would be wrong to view the changes as a move to purge board members close to Hurd. "That has nothing to do with it," he said, stressing that all the board members voted to accept Hurd's resignation last summer.

"We were fortunate that we had four volunteers who had served a long time and were ready to step back and make some room for new board members. That worked out very nicely and the company is indebted to them," Lane added.

Sources familiar with the matter said Hyatt and Joyce had remained supportive of the former CEO during much of the discussion that led to his ouster. Sources said Salhany, however, was among the first to tell other board members that she had become disillusioned with Hurd after the board began investigating his relationship with contractor Jodie Fisher.

Salhany had served on the board since 2002 and Ryan was appointed in 2004. Joyce and Hyatt were both appointed in 2007; they were among several board members appointed during Hurd's tenure, after a previous shake-up in 2006. Three board members left that year, including then-chairwoman Patricia Dunn, amid a scandal over the company's efforts to investigate suspected press leaks. The investigation included obtaining reporters' telephone records under false pretenses, for which the company later apologized.

Contact Brandon Bailey at 408-920-5022.

For full details on Hewlett-Packard Co (HPQ) HPQ. Hewlett-Packard Co (HPQ) has Short Term PowerRatings at TradingMarkets. Details on Hewlett-Packard Co (HPQ) Short Term PowerRatings is available at This Link.

Suwalsky is the treasurer and chief legal officer of the Missouri Province of the Society of Jesus and Minister of the Bellarmine House of Studies.

He also serves on the boards of De Smet Jesuit High School and Loyola Academy in St. Louis, Rockhurst High School in Kansas City, and the Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University in Berkeley.

Hewlett-Packard announced a massive overhaul of its board of directors on Thursday, naming five new members in an unusual shake-up aimed at moving the world's largest tech company into a new chapter after months of corporate drama surrounding its former CEO.

The new directors include a well-known Silicon Valley figure -- former eBay Chief Executive Meg Whitman, who lost a race for California governor last fall -- and four executives whose résumés include experience in international business, technology and corporate dealmaking.

They will replace two directors who served on HP's board during three major controversies over the past five years, and two more who joined more recently, during the tenure of former CEO Mark Hurd, who was forced to resign last summer in a scandal over his personal relationship with a part-time marketing contractor. HP is also adding one new seat to the board, increasing the number of members from 12 to 13.

HP's board was widely criticized after Hurd's ouster: Supporters of the former CEO complained that the board was too quick to dump a successful chief executive, while some shareholders complained that the board was too generous in letting him leave with a huge severance package. Analysts said Thursday that the new board needs to stabilize the company while helping it adapt to a rapidly changing, and intensely competitive, technology market.

"The board said 'Let's look forward. ... We've been through a lot,'"?" said Raymond Lane, who joined the board as chairman in September, when the company also hired veteran software executive Léo Apotheker to replace Hurd as CEO.

Lane, a former Oracle president who has assumed a prominent role at HP, told the Mercury News that directors agreed it was time to "refresh the board" with new members who can bring a range of business perspectives to the company. "After bringing Léo on, the board felt that we had closed a chapter," he added.

A majority of newcomers

Several analysts pegged the move as a clear sign that Apotheker is beginning to remake the Palo Alto-based tech giant. HP has said Apotheker is working on a "bold, solid plan" for the company's future, although he declined to elaborate Thursday.

With the new appointments, seven of HP's 13 directors will have joined the company in the past six months.

"That's a huge change. It changes the entire dynamic of the board," said veteran industry observer and tech consultant Rob Enderle, president of the Enderle Group.

"The existing board had a lot of image issues. It's probably best that they start with a clean slate," Enderle added. He was referring to the controversy over Hurd's ouster and an earlier scandal in 2006 when an investigation into news leaks left the company apologizing for obtaining reporters' telephone records under false pretenses. HP was also rocked by another controversy in 2005, when the board ousted then-CEO Carly Fiorina.

In addition to Whitman, the new directors are Shumeet Banerji, the London-based CEO of management consulting firm Booz & Company; Gary Reiner, a private equity adviser and former executive responsible for information technology at General Electric; Patricia Russo, a former CEO of telecommunications giant Alcatel-Lucent; and Dominique Senequier, the Paris-based CEO of AXA Private Equity. They'll join the board effective Friday.

The new directors, like all outside HP board members, will be paid $100,000 annually. They also will receive $175,000 in stocks and/or stock options each year.

HP directors Joel Hyatt, John Joyce, Robert Ryan and Lucille Salhany will not seek re-election to the board at the company's annual shareholder meeting in March, the company said.

Stock ticks upward

The news drew a favorable response from Wall Street, where the company's stock began to climb sharply after word of the impending changes leaked about 15 minutes before the close of trading Thursday. HP shares closed at $46.78, up 46 cents for the day.

Added Brent Bracelin of Pacific Crest Securities: "Clearly there's been a lot of drama that's unfolded at HP in recent years. As we think about HP's ability to succeed in a changing competitive environment, I think board changes are probably a step in the right direction."

But corporate governance experts said it's highly unusual for a company to name so many new board members at once.

"It suggests that this is still an unsettled business," said Stephen Diamond, a law professor at Santa Clara University.

"It will take time for the board to get to know each other," he added. "My concern is it will extend the time frame in which Apotheker is attempting to establish clear leadership."

Noting that several of the board members have experience in consulting and private equity investment, Diamond suggested that HP, which currently sells a wide range of tech products and services, might be planning to reorganize or even spin off some of its divisions.

In an interview, Lane said it would be wrong to view the changes as a purge of board members close to Hurd. "That has nothing to do with it," he said, stressing that the board voted unanimously to accept Hurd's resignation.

"We were fortunate that we had four volunteers who had served a long time and were ready to step back and make some room for new board members," Lane added.

Shareholder suits remain

Sources told the Mercury News that Hyatt and Joyce supported Hurd during much of the board's discussion last summer but ultimately voted for his resignation. Sources said Ryan and Salhany helped oversee the investigation of Hurd's relationship with contractor Jodie Fisher, and Salhany in particular was among the first to tell other directors that she had lost faith in the chief executive.

Salhany had served on the board since 2002 and Ryan was appointed in 2004. Joyce and Hyatt, who both joined in 2007, were among several board members appointed during Hurd's tenure.

HP is still facing several lawsuits from shareholders who contend the company should not have let Hurd leave with a lucrative severance package. A federal judge agreed Thursday to grant a 45-day postponement in one of those cases, after the company said it plans to have outside attorneys and a committee of new directors conduct a review of Hurd's departure.

Contact Brandon Bailey at 408-920-5022. Follow him at Twitter.com/BrandonBailey.

That has been the refrain on Wall Street this week, as the latest figures showed that retail investors put $3.8 billion more into U.S. stock mutual funds than they took out in the week of Jan. 12. Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose for the eighth week in a row, raising concerns that the market is overheating.

"You're starting to see the retail investor pile into stocks now that the market has nearly doubled," says David Rosenberg, chief economist at Gluskin Sheff & Associates in Toronto. "Is it a classic sell signal? The answer is unequivocally yes."

Hedge funds and other professional traders, having loaded up on U.S. equities with cheap cash pumped into the economy by the Federal Reserve, would like nothing more than to dump their positions onto the "dumb money" and call it a year.

But a closer look at the numbers shows that, instead of plunging back into stocks with both feet, the small investor appears to be dipping in only the first knuckle of one pinky toe. Those who are betting on more may end up disappointed.

While the recent $3.8 billion was the biggest weekly flow into mutual funds since May 2009, it added just 0.09% to the total assets of U.S. stock funds. Last year, investors yanked out roughly $35 billion more than they put into U.S. stock mutual and exchange-traded funds combined.

What's more, fund purchases normally take a jump in January. In 2006, according to TrimTabs Investment Research, 72% of all the new money that came into U.S. stock funds arrived in January. In both 2009 and 2010, more than $6.8 billion flowed into U.S. stock funds in January. Still, a total of $109 billion gushed back out during the two years.

For millions of Americans, spare cash is a lot scarcer than it was in the days when unemployment ran at 6% and home-equity loans made houses ring like cash registers. "Those [money managers] who have been buying are looking for the greater fool to take them out, and the greater fool has always been the little guy," says Charles Biderman, TrimTabs' chief executive. "But maybe the little guy doesn't have the money this time to play the greater fool."

It has been ages since stocks nearly doubled and investors didn't give a darn. In early 1948?nearly two decades after the Crash of 1929?the Federal Reserve surveyed 3,500 investors nationwide about their attitudes toward stocks. Only 5% were willing to invest in equities, and 62% were opposed. Asked why, 26% said stocks were "not safe" or "a gamble." Just 4% felt that stocks offered a "satisfactory" return.

Even after stocks had doubled over the preceding five years, the wounds of the Great Crash still hadn't healed.

It could be a long slog, again, before today's small investors forgive the market for the pain it inflicted on them. After the 2008-09 bear market and the flash crash of May 6, 2010, when the Dow dropped 583 points in roughly five minutes, "a lot of people have said, 'Never again,'" says Morningstar analyst Kevin McDevitt.

James Elder, 63, an executive at a wholesale lumber supplier in Opelousas, La., is one. "The last two or three years have exposed that for the small investor, the game is totally rigged," Mr. Elder says. "You expect that in a casino, but at least in a casino you know the odds. In the stock market now [after the "flash crash"], you don't even know the odds."

Mr. Elder, who kept about half his assets in stocks until 2008, has only 10% left in equities. "I don't plan on ever going back and putting as much into stocks," he says.

Even without a stampede of individual investors, the stock market can get overstretched. The market boomed in the late 1940s and early 1950s without the little guy. Only in the mid-1950s, as one of the biggest bull markets in history roared ahead, did individuals return to stocks in earnest. By then stocks were roughly twice as expensive as they had been when individual investors told the Fed they were a "gamble."

"When is the last time you heard somebody say, 'Any dip in the stock market is a buying opportunity'?" asks Meir Statman, a finance professor at Santa Clara University.

Perhaps the so-called smart money shouldn't be too smug in assuming that small investors are ready to play the patsy again anytime soon.

Who, then, will buy from the sellers? That question should worry bulls and bears alike. Write to Jason Zweig at intelligentinvestor@wsj.com

THE LATEST FARE INCREASE CAME MONDAY. DELTA RAISED ITS FARES 2-DOLLARS ON A ROUND TRIP TICKET, AND UNITED RAISED ITS FARES BY TEN DOLLARS. OTHER CARRIERS FOLLOWED SUIT. THIS IS THE FOURTH INCREASE SINCE MID-DECEMBER. ANALYSTS BLAME THE FARE INCREASES ON RISING OIL PRICES AND AN IMPROVED ECONOMY. BANKS ARE LOOKING FOR MORE WAYS TO INCREASE REVENUES, AND MANY HAVE RAISED FEES ON CHECKING ACCOUNTS. TO AVOID THEM, PICK THE RIGHT ACCOUNT FOR YOU, AND MAKE SURE THE OPTIONS FIT HOW YOU USE CHECKING. PRINT YOUR ACCOUNT STATEMENTS AT HOME INSTEAD OF USING THE ATM, MANY BANKS HAVE INCREASED CHARGES FOR PRINTING STATEMENTS. THE COST OF USING ANOTHER BANK'S A- TM HAS GONE UP AS WELL, SO USE YOUR OWN WHENEVER POSSIBLE. MOST OF US DOWNLOAD APPS FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES, AND TO PUT RESTAURANT REVIEWS OR SHOPPING DEALS AT OUR FINGERTIPS. BUT THERE ARE OTHER APPS OUT THERE, ONES THAT CAN HELP CHANGE PEOPLE'S LIVES. GARVIN THOMAS HAS MORE. nats: "green brown" LIKE MILLIONS OF OTHER AMERICANS, JEFF KRAMER IS COLOR BLIND. FORTUNATELY FOR HIM THOUGH WHEN IT COMES TO PICKING OUT HIS CLOTHES, HIS WIFE IS MORE THAN WILLING TO HELP HIM OUT. (SOT Jeff Kramer, Color Blind) "We've got it down to a science where I'll be walking out and she'll say, 'Stop, 'and she'll just go, 'No, 'and then you know, back in. " BUT NOW WHEN SHE'S NOT AVAILABLE, THERE IS SOMEONE OR SOME THING ELSE KRAMER CAN TURN TO, HIS PHONE. A NEW SMARTPHONE APP JUST RELEASED THAT HELPS COLOR BLIND PEOPLE SEE WHAT THEY'VE BEEN MISSING. (SOT Jeff Kramer, Color Blind)"Alright, now I can really, now that really jumps out. " THE DANKAM IS AN ADJUSTABLE FILTER THAT THE USER CAN CUSTOMIZE TO COMPENSATE FOR HIS OR HER DEFICIENCY. (SOT Dan Kaminsky, DanKam)"If you're color blind, you really just can not tell that red from that green. " DANKAM IS NAMED FOR IT'S DEVELOPER, DAN KAMINSKY. AN INTERNET SECURITY EXPERT BY DAY, KAMINSKY SAID HE BUILT THE APP TO HELP A FRIEND WHO IS COLOR BLIND, AND IS FRANKLY SHOCKED BY HOW MANY PEOPLE HE HAS ENDED UP HELPING. (SOT Dan Kaminsky, DanKam)"People are telling me they're in tears. " (STANDUP Garvin Thomas, Reporting)"Now if you're not colorblind, you may be wondering why you should care about an app like this? Well, because it's an example of where mobile technology is heading. What started out as a way to listen to music or play mes is turning out to be so much more and we're just at the beginning of the revolution. " (SOT Radha Basu, Santa Clara University Center for Science, Technology, and Society) "Mobile devices solving problems in ways we could never even think of doing before. " RADHA BASU IS WITH SANTA CLARA UNIVERSITY'S CENTER FOR SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND SOCIETY. SHE POINTS TO APPS THAT TURN MOBILE PHONES INTO MICROSCOPES, HEART MONITORS, HEARING AIDS, EVEN ONES THAT HELP BLIND PEOPLE NAVIGATE CITY STREETS. TRULY LIFE CHANGING, PERHAPS LIFE SAVING APPLICATIONS. (SOT Radha Basu, Santa Clara University Center for Science, Technology, and Society)"Problems of society that we never thought we could solve before that are starting to get addressed. " AND "STARTING" BASU SAYS, IS THE KEY WORD. IT'S JUST A MATTER OF TIME BEFORE TECHNOLOGY HELPS ALL OF US SEE THE WORLD AROUND US A LITTLE DIFFERENTLY. A TEENAGER FROM CALIFORNIA IS RIDING HIGH ON HIS NEW INVENTION.

Most of us download apps for entertainment purposes, and to put restaurant reviews or shopping deals at our fingertips. But there are other apps out there, ones that can help change people's lives. Garvin Thomas has more. Nats: "green Brown"like millions of other Americans, Jeff Kramer is color blind. Fortunately for him though when it comes to picking out his clothes, his wife is more than willing to help him out. got it down to a Science where I'll be walking out and she'll say, 'stop, 'and she'll just go, 'no, ' and then you know, back in. ">But now when she's not available, there is someone or some thing else Kramer can turn to His phone. A new smartphone app just released that helps color blind people see what they've been missing. "Alright, now I can really, now that really jumps out. "The dankam is an adjustable filter that the user can customize to compensate for his or her deficiency. "If you're color blind, you really just can not tell that red from that green. " Dankam is named for it's developer, Dan Kaminsky. An Internet security expert by day, Kaminsky said he built the app to help a friend who is color blind, and is frankly shocked by how many people he has ended up helping. "People are telling me they're in tears. "( "Now if you're not colorblind, you may be wondering why you should care about an app like this? Well, because it's an example of where mobile technology is heading. What started out as a way to listen to music or play games is turning out to be so much more and we're just at the beginning of the revolution. "Mobile devices solving problems in ways we could never even think of doing before. "> Radha basu is with Santa clara University's center for Science, technology, and society. She points to apps that turn mobile phones into microscopes, heart monitors, hearing AIDS, even ones that help blind people navigate city streets. Truly life changing Perhaps life (weather is not available for closed captioning>our next newscast is live at four with Brian Mastre. I'm Jim Siedlecki. Thanks for choosing channel six news.

THERE ARE SOME OUT THERE WE'LL SHOW THEM TO YOU NEXT. MOST OF US TO PUT RESTAURANT REVIEWS OR SHOPPING DEALS AT OUR FINGERTIPS. BUT THERE ARE OTHER APPS OUT THERE, ONES THAT CAN HELP CHANGE PEOPLE'S LIVES. NBC'S GARVIN THOMAS HAS MORE. nats: "green brown" LIKE MILLIONS OF OTHER AMERICANS, JEFF KRAMER IS COLOR BLIND. FORTUNATELY FOR HIM THOUGH WHEN IT COMES TO PICKING OUT HIS CLOTHES, HIS WIFE IS MORE THAN WILLING TO HELP HIM OUT. "We've got it down to a science where I'll be walking out and she'll say, 'Stop, ' and she'll just go, 'No, ' and then you know, back in. " BUT NOW WHEN SHE'S NOT AVAILABLE, THERE IS SOMEONE OR SOME THING ELSE KRAMER CAN TURN TO, HIS PHONE. A NEW SMARTPHONE APP JUST RELEASED THAT HELPS COLOR BLIND PEOPLE SEE WHAT THEY'VE BEEN MISSING. "Alright, now I can really, now that really jumps out. " THE DANKAM IS AN ADJUSTABLE FILTER THAT THE USER CAN CUSTOMIZE TO COMPENSATE FOR HIS OR HER DEFICIENCY. "If you're color blind, you really just can not tell that red from that green. " DANKAM IS NAMED FOR IT'S DEVELOPER, DAN KAMINSKY. AN INTERNET SECURITY EXPERT BY DAY, KAMINSKY SAID HE BUILT THE APP TO HELP A FRIEND WHO IS COLOR BLIND, AND IS FRANKLY SHOCKED BY HOW MANY PEOPLE HE HAS ENDED UP HELPING. "People are telling me they're in tears. " "Now if you're not colorblind, you may be wondering why you should care about an app like this? Well, because it's an example of where mobile technology is heading. What started out as a way to listen to music or play games is turning out to be so much more and we're just at the beginning of the revolution. " "Mobile devices solving problems in ways we could never even think of doing before. " RADHA BASU IS WITH SANTA CLARA UNIVERSITY'S CENTER FOR SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND SOCIETY. SHE POINTS TO APPS THAT TURN MOBILE PHONES INTO MICROSCOPES, HEART MONITORS, HEARING AIDS, EVEN ONES THAT HELP BLIND PEOPLE NAVIGATE CITY STREETS. TRULY LIFE CHANGING, PERHAPS LIFE SAVING APPLICATIONS. "Problems of society that we never thought we could solve before that are starting to get addressed. " AND "STARTING" BASU SAYS, IS THE KEY WORD. IT'S JUST A MATTER OF TIME BEFORE TECHNOLOGY HELPS ALL OF US SEE THE WORLD AROUND US A LITTLE DIFFERENTLY. A DALMATIAN RESCUED FROM ICY WATERS IN NEBRASKA IS GETTING A SECOND CHANCE. SHE WAS PULLED OUT OF THE BIG BLUE RIVER BY FIREFIGHTERS LAST MONTH. AFTER NO ONE CLAIMED HER - THE TURPEL FAMILY DECIDED TO INVITE HER INTO THEIR HOME. ICY - THE DOG - SEEMS TO LIKE HER NEW HOME. INTERESTED IN LIVING IN LONDON? HAVE SOME MONEY? YOU CAN CHECK OUT LONDON'S NEWEST AND MOST-EXPENSIVE APARTMENT BUILDING THAT HAS BREATHTAKING VIEWS OF LONDON. AND YOU CAN LIVE THERE FOR NINE-AND-A-HALF-THOUSAND-DOLLARS PER SQUARE FOOT.

COUNTRY ARE FACING MAJOR TRAFFIC JAMS, AND IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH CARS AND TRUCKS. WHAT WE ONCE CALLED "THE INFORMATION SUPERHIGHWAY" IS NOW GETTING BOGGED DOWN WITH ALL THE INTERNET TRAFFIC FROM OUR COMPUTER AND PHONES. WE ARE CONNECTED MORE THAN EVER BEFORE. AND EXPERTS SAY MORE AND MORE DEVICES ARE GETTING CONNECTED IN BUSINESSES, SCHOOLS, AND HOMES EVERY DAY. "YOU EAT UP THAT BANDWIDTH REALLY FAST AND IT CHOPS IT UP INTO LITTLE PIECES SO IT GETS SLOWER AND SLOWER AND SLOWER. " "I EXPECT THAT WE'LL HAVE TO DOUBLE IT AGAIN WITHIN THE NEXT YEAR, 18 MONTHS BEYOND WHAT WE'RE DOING RIGHT NOW. " THOSE EXPERTS SAY THEY EXPECT TO SEE CAPACITY GROW ALONG WITH DEMAND. INTERNET AND WIRELESS COMPANIES STAND TO BENEFIT FROM OUR INCREASINGLY CONNECTED LIFESTYLES. SO THEY EXPECT BANDWIDTH TO KEEP UP. MOST OF US DOWNLOAD APPS FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES, AND TO PUT RESTAURANT REVIEWS OR SHOPPING DEALS AT OUR FINGERTIPS. BUT THERE ARE OTHER APPS OUT THERE, ONES THAT CAN HELP CHANGE PEOPLE'S LIVES. GARVIN THOMAS PREVIEWS THEM. NATS: "GREEN BROWN" LIKE MILLIONS OF OTHER AMERICANS, JEFF KRAMER IS COLOR BLIND. FORTUNATELY FOR HIM THOUGH WHEN IT COMES TO PICKING OUT HIS CLOTHES, HIS WIFE IS MORE THAN WILLING TO HELP HIM OUT. "WE'VE GOT IT DOWN TO A SCIENCE WHERE I'LL BE WALKING OUT AND SHE'LL SAY, 'STOP, 'AND SHE'LL JUST GO, 'NO, ' AND THEN YOU KNOW, BACK IN. " BUT NOW WHEN SHE'S NOT AVAILABLE, THERE IS SOMEONE OR SOME THING ELSE KRAMER CAN TURN TO, HIS PHONE. A NEW SMARTPHONE APP JUST RELEASED THAT HELPS COLOR BLIND PEOPLE SESEWHAT THEY'VE BEEN MISSING. "ALRIGHT, NOW I CAN REALLY, NOW THAT REALLY JUMPS OUT. " THE DANKAM IS AN ADJUSTABLE FILTER THAT THE USER CAN CUSTOMIZE TO COMPENSATE FOR HIS OR HER DEFICIENCY. "IF YOU'RE COLOR BLIND, YOU REALLY JUST CAN NOT TELL THAT RED FROM THAT GREEN. " DANKAM IS NAMED FOR IT'S DEVELOPER, DAN KAMINSKY. AN INTERNET SECURITY EXPERT BY DAY, KAMINSKY SAID HE BUILT THE APP TO HELP A FRIEND WHO IS COLOR BLIND, AND IS FRANKLY SHOCKED BY HOW MANY PEOPLE HE HAS ENDED UP HELPING. "PEOPLE ARE TELLING ME THEY'RE IN TEARS. " "NOW IF YOU'RE NOT COLORBLIND, YOU MAY BE WONDERING WHY YOU SHOULD CARE ABOUT AN APP LIKE THIS? WELL, BECAUSE IT'S AN EXAMPLE OF WHERE MOBILE TECHNOLOGY IS HEADING. WHAT STARTED OUT AS A WAY TO LISTEN TO MUSIC OR PLAY GAMES IS TURNING OUT TO BE SO MUCH MORE AND WE'RE JUST AT THE BEGINNING OF THE REVOLUTION. " "MOBILE DEVICES SOLVING PROBLEMS IN WAYS WE COULD NEVER EVEN THINK OF DOING BEFORE. " RADHA BASU IS WITH SANTA CLARA UNIVERSITY'S CENTER FOR SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND SOCIETY. SHE POINTS TO APPS S AT TURN MOBILE PHONES INTO MICROSCOPES, HEART MONITORS, HEARING AIDS, EVEN ONES THAT HELP BLIND PEOPLE NAVIGATE CITY STREETS. TRULY LIFE CHANGING PERHAPS LIFE SAVING APPLICATIONS. "PROBLEMS OF SOCICIY THAT WE NEVER THOUGHT WE COULD SOLVE BEFORE THAT ARE STARTING TO GET ADDRESSED. " AND "STARTING" BASU SAYS, IS THE KEY WORD. IT'S JUST A MATTER OF TIME BEFORE TECHNOLOGY HELPS ALL OF US SEE THE WORLD AROUND US A LITTLE DIFFERENTLY. IF YOU'D LIKE TO DOWNLOAD THAT APP OR ANY OTHER, NOW IS THE TIME TO DO IT. APPLE IS GETTING READY TO CELEBRATE A BIG MILESTONE WITH A HUGE PRIZE. THE APP STORE WILL SOON SELL IT'S 10-BILLIONTH DOWNLOAD. APPLE IS MARKING THE MOMENT BY OFFERING THE TEN BILLIONTH APP PURCHASER A $10,000 ITUNES GIFT CARD. AND THAT APP DOESN'T HAVE TO BE A PAID ONE, APPLE WILL MAKE THE AWARD EVEN IF THAT DOWNLOADED APP IS FREE. ALONG WITH THE JUMPS, SPINS, AND LIFTS, COMES RISK. THE TRIAD'S TOP DOCTORS PREPARE TO CARE FOR THE NATION'S TOP SKATERS AS THE US FIGURE SKATING CHAMPIONSHIPS HEAD TO TOWN. PLUS- THE STATES GET GRADED ON TOBACCO USE AND PREVENTION, AND THE AMERICAN LUNG ASSOCIATION SAYS MANY *AREN'T*PASSING THE TEST. WE'LL TELL YOU HOW NORTH CAROLINA RANKS NEXT/

Doctors have long known that diabetic women have a higher risk of breast cancer but this study from Johns Hopkins University shows they're almost 50-percent more likely to die than breast cancer patients without diabetes. Researchers say this could be because diabetics are more often diagnosed with later stage breast cancers and may put their diabetes care on hold while undergoing cancer treatment. Women with diabetes also tend to have more health problems when they start cancer treatments like obesity, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. Most of us download apps for entertainment purposes, and to put restaurant reviews or shopping deals at our fingertips. Or even to keep up with the latest news, weather and traffic information. But there are other apps out there, ones that can help change people's lives. Garvin Thomas has more. nats: "green brown" LIKE MILLIONS OF OTHER AMERICANS, JEFF KRAMER IS COLOR BLIND. FORTUNATELY FOR HIM THOUGH WHEN IT COMES TO PICKING OUT HIS CLOTHES, HIS WIFE IS MORE THAN WILLING TO HELP HIM OUT. "We've got it down to a science where I'll be walking out and she'll say, 'Stop, ' and she'll just go, 'No, ' and then you know, back in. " BUT NOW WHEN SHE'S NOT AVAILABLE, THERE IS SOMEONE OR SOME THING ELSE KRAMER CAN TURN TO, HIS PHONE. A NEW SMARTPHONE APP JUST RELEASED THAT HELPS COLOR BLIND PEOPLE SEE WHAT THEY'VE BEEN MISSING. "Alright, now I can really, now that really jumps out. " THE DANKAM IS AN ADJUSTABLE FILTER THAT THE USER CAN CUSTOMIZE TO COMPENSATE FOR HIS OR HER DEFICIENCY. "If you're color blind, you really just can not tell that red from that green. " DANKAM IS NAMED FOR IT'S DEVELOPER, DAN KAMINSKY. AN INTERNET SECURITY EXPERT BY DAY, KAMINSKY SAID HE BUILT THE APP TO HELP A FRIEND WHO IS COLOR BLIND, AND IS FRANKLY SHOCKED BY HOW MANY PEOPLE HE HAS ENDED UP HELPING. "People are telling me they're in tears. " "Now if you're not colorblind, you may be wondering why you should care about an app like this? Well, because it's an example of where mobile technology is heading. What started out as a way to listen to music or play games is turning out to be so much more and we're just at the beginning of the revolution. " "Mobile devices solving problems in ways we could never even think of doing before. " RADHA BASU IS WITH SANTA CLARA UNIVERSITY'S CENTER FOR SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND SOCIETY. SHE POINTS TO APPS THAT TURN MOBILE PHONES INTO MICROSCOPES, HEART MONITORS, HEARING AIDS, EVEN ONES THAT HELP BLIND PEOPLE NAVIGATE CITY STREETS. TRULY LIFE CHANGING, PERHAPS LIFE SAVING APPLICATIONS. "Problems of society that we never thought we could solve before that are starting to get addressed. " AND "STARTING" BASU SAYS, IS THE KEY WORD. IT'S JUST A MATTER OF TIME BEFORE TECHNOLOGY HELPS ALL OF US SEE THE WORLD AROUND US A LITTLE DIFFERENTLY.

IF LEFT UNTREATED, COMPLICATIONS CAN DEVELOP THAT MAY LEAD TO KIDNEY OR HEART DAMAGE- BUT THIS IS NOT TOO COMMON IN THE USASPEN HAS BEEN GIVEN A CLEAN BILL OF HEALTH. AND OF COURSE, FOR THE LATEST HEALTH NEWS ALL THE TIME, VISIT OUR WEBSITE AT WLBT-DOT-COM AND CLICK ON MEDICAL MATTERS. IN NEWS AROUND THE SOUTH, TWO MIAMI- DADE COUNTY POLICE OFFICERS ARE DEAD AFTER A SHOOTOUT THIS MORNING ONE DIED AT THE SCENE, AND ANOTHER AT A NEARBY TRAUMA CENTER. THE COUNTY MAYOR SAYS THE OFFICERS WERE PART OF A TEAM ATTEMPTING TO LOCATE THE SUBJECT OF A MIAMI HOMICIDE WARRANT, WHEN GUNSHOTS WERE EXCHANGED. AT LEAST ONE SUSPECT WAS SHOT AND KILLED. ANOTHER SUSPECT IS IN CUSTODY. THE IDENTITIES OF THE OFFICERS AND SUSPECTS HAVE NOT BEEN RELEASED. POLICE IN FORT MYERS SAY A MAN POSED AS A WINDOW-WASHER AT THIS TATTOO SHOP BUT TOOK OFF WITH A WATER JUG FILLED WITH CASH. THE SHOP OWNER SAYS IT WAS NEARLY FIVE-HUNDRED DOLLARS. THE MONEY WAS THE RESULT OF A FIVE MONTH FUND-RAISING DRIVE TO HELP CANCER VICTIMS. THE SHOP OWNER WAS HOPING TO TURN THE MONEY OVER TO RELAY FOR LIFE IN MAY. THE TATTOO SHOP OWNER HOPES HE CAN START AGAIN AND HOPES SOMEHOW THE MONEY WILL RETURN. TENSE MOMENTS IN THE SKIES ABOVE ARKANSAS. A DELTA FLIGHT FROM ATLANTA REPORTED HYDRAULIC PROBLEMS FORCING THE PILOT TO MAKE AN EMERGENCY LANDING AT ITS DESTINATION LITTLE ROCK NATIONAL. AS YOU CAN SEE THE PLANE'S RIGHT SIDE LANDING GEAR SPARKS AS IT TOUCHES DOWN. "If you fly, you're gonna have problems. It's man made. It's gonna break but nobody was scared. " OFFICIALS TELL US NO ONE WAS INJURED, EVERYONE GOT OFF THE PLANE OKAY. AND NOW A THREE ON YOUR SIDE CONSUMER REPORT. MOST OF US DOWNLOAD APPS FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES, AND TO PUT RESTAURANT REVIEWS OR SHOPPING DEALS AT OUR FINGERTIPS. BUT THERE ARE OTHER APPS OUT THERE, ONES THAT CAN HELP CHANGE PEOPLE'S LIVES. GARVIN THOMAS HAS MORE. nats: "green brown" LIKE MILLIONS OF OTHER AMERICANS, JEFF KRAMER IS COLOR BLIND. FORTUNATELY FOR HIM THOUGH WHEN IT COMES TO PICKING OUT HIS CLOTHES, HIS WIFE IS MORE THAN WILLING TO HELP HIM OUT. "We've got it down to a science where I'll be walking out and she'll say, 'Stop, ' and she'll just go, 'No, ' and then you know, back in. " BUT NOW WHEN SHE'S NOT AVAILABLE, THERE IS SOMEONE OR SOME THING ELSE KRAMER CAN TURN TO, HIS PHONE. A NEW SMARTPHONE APP JUST RELEASED THAT HELPS COLOR BLIND PEOPLE SEE WHAT THEY'VE BEEN MISSING. "Alright, now I can really, now that really jumps out. " THE DANKAM IS AN ADJUSTABLE FILTER THAT THE USER CAN CUSTOMIZE TO COMPENSATE FOR HIS OR HER DEFICIENCY. "If you're color blind, you really just can not tell that red from that green. " DANKAM IS NAMED FOR IT'S DEVELOPER, DAN KAMINSKY. AN INTERNET SECURITY EXPERT BY DAY, KAMINSKY SAID HE BUILT THE APP TO HELP A FRIEND WHO IS COLOR BLIND, AND IS FRANKLY SHOCKED BY HOW MANY PEOPLE HE HAS ENDED UP HELPING. "People are telling me they're in tears. " "Now if you're not colorblind, you may be wondering why you should care about an app like this? Well, because it's an example of where mobile technology is heading. What started out as a way to listen to music or play games is turning out to be so much more and we're just at the beginning of the revolution. " "Mobile devices solving problems in ways we could never even think of doing before. " RADHA BASU IS WITH SANTA CLARA UNIVERSITY'S CENTER FOR SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND SOCIETY. SHE POINTS TO APPS THAT TURN MOBILE PHONES INTO MICROSCOPES, HEART MONITORS, HEARING AIDS, EVEN ONES THAT HELP BLIND PEOPLE NAVIGATE CITY STREETS. TRULY LIFE CHANGING, PERHA PS LIFE SAVING APPLICATIONS. PS LIFE SAVING APPLICATIONS. "Problems of society that we never thought we could solve before that are starting to get addressed. " AND "STARTING" BASU SAYS, IS THE KEY WORD. IT'S JUST A MATTER OF TIME BEFORE TECHNOLOGY HELPS ALL OF US SEE THE WORLD AROUND US A LITTLE DIFFERENTLY. THAT WAS GAVIN THOMAS REPORTING. BARBIE HAS ANOTHER CHECK OF YOUR FIRST ALERT WEATHER COMING UP, PLUS, WINTRY WEATHER LEADS TO THIS ACCIDENT IN OKLHAHOMA, MORE IN A MOMENT. FIRST ALERT CHIEF METEOROLOGIST BARBIE BASSETT HAS ANOTHER CHECK OF OUR WEATHER, THANKS MAGGIE, ADLIB AUSTRIA SAW SIGNS OF AN EARLY SPRING TODAY.

"Mobile devices solving problems in ways we could never even think of doing before. " RADHA BASU IS WITH SANTA CLARA UNIVERSITY'S CENTER FOR SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND SOCIETY. SHE POINTS TO APPS THAT TURN MOBILE PHONES INTO MICROSCOPES, HEART MONITORS, HEARING AIDS, EVEN ONES THAT HELP BLIND PEOPLE NAVIGATE CITY STREETS. TRULY LIFE CHANGING, PERHAPS LIFE SAVING APPLICATIONS. "Problems of society that we never thought we could solve before that are starting to get addressed. " AND "STARTING" BASU SAYS, IS THE KEY WORD. IT'S JUST A MATTER OF TIME BEFORE TECHNOLOGY HELPS ALL OF US SEE THE WORLD AROUND US A LITTLE DIFFERENTLY. OUR BROADCAST CONTINUES WITH 5:30 NOW. TONIGHT ON 5:30 NOW, IT'S THE BUSIEST TIME OF THE YEAR FOR LOCAL FIREFIGHTERS. FIND OUT WHY CREWS BATTLE MORE FLAMES IN THE WINTER THAN ANY OTHER TIME OF THE YEAR. PLUS WITH A MAJOR BUDGET DEFICIT LOOMING AHEAD, GOVERNOR SHUMLIN OUTLINES HIS PLANS TO CLOSE THE GAP. "the feds are warning of a scam targeting those who want to adopt. i'm mary morin and i'll have the details in tonight's fraud squad report. " THANKS FOR STAYING WITH US TONIGHT - I'M BRIDGET SHANAHAN. IT'S TEMPTING TO TAKE EXTRA STEPS TO SAY WARM WHEN IT GETS THIS COLD -BUT BE CAREFUL BEFORE YOU DO. FIREFIGHTERS SAY THIS IS THEIR BUSIEST TIME OF THE YEAR! NEWSCHANNEL FIVE'S HEATHER VAN ARSDEL IS HERE TO EXPLAIN. YOU MAY NOT REALIZE IT BUT NOT ONLY ARE WE NOW IN THE THICK OF WINTER BUT IT'S ALSO THE HEIGHT OF WHEN HOME FIRE HAPPEN. FIRE OFFICIALS SAY IT'S DURING THESE COLDEST MONTHS, WHEN MOST RESIDENTIAL FIRES OCCUR AND THERE'S OFTEN ONE MAIN CAUSE. 42 FIRE december, january, february, : 50 FIRE heating is the main cause and cooking is the other main cause of winter residential fires AND HE SAYS THE EXPLANATION IS SIMPLE WHEN IT'S COLD PEOPLE STAY INDOORS. AND THINGS LIKE SPACE HEATERS ARE USED FREQUENTLY AND OFTEN USED INCORRECTLY 1:35 FIRE keep everything at least three feet away from it while its on BUT HE SAYS A LOT OF PEOPLE DON'T DO THAT AND END UP PUTTING SEEMINGLY INNOCENT ITEMS - TO CLOSE 2:22 FIRE clothing, couches anything that is combustible and near the sh your likely to have a fire AND THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENED IN THIS CASE THE CITY'S FIRST MAJOR FIRE OF THE YEAR RESIDENTS OF THIS HOME ON COUCH STREET REPORTEDLY PUT ITEMS OF CLOTHES TO CLOSE TO THEIR WALL HEATER AND THE ENTIRE HOME WENT UP IN FLAMES, IN JUST MINUTES. 9 ADULTS, 6 CHILDREN, INCLUDING AND INFANT AND 7 PETS ALL MADE IT OUT WITHOUT INJURIES. AND WITH JUST THE CLOTHES ON THEIR BACK , 4:14 they were lucky ANOTHER THING THAT'S DANGEROUS. STAND UP williams says space heaters should never be plugged into an extension cord they should be plugged in directly into the socket 1:50 FIRE a lot of times they'll buy a space heater and where they want to put it there is no outlet so they'll plug it into an extension cord and it can't take the load so it burns up AS FOR THE SECOND MAIN CAUSE OF WINTER HOME FIRES, THE CHIEF SAYS TO AVOID THAT JUST USE COMMON SENSE , 2:40 CHIEF if your cooking. Stay at the stove. WE SAY IT EVERY YEAR BUT WE'LL SAY IT AGAIN ALWAYS MAKE SURE YOUR SMOKE AND CARBON MONOXIDE DETECTORS ARE IN WORKING ORDER. NEW AT 5:30 TONIGHT THE FOCUS AT THE VERMONT STATEHOUSE WILL SHIFT FROM HEALTHCARE REFORM TO THE BUDGET IN THE NEXT FEW DAYS. GOVERNOR SHUMLIN MUST CLOSE A BIG DEFICIT IN THE COMING YEAR. NEWSCHANNEL FIVE'S STEWART LEDBETTER IS LIVE IN OUR VERMONT NEWSROOM, STEW, ANY HINTS FROM SHUMLIN TODAY ABOUT HOW HE'LL DO IT? NOT REALLY. AT THE GOVERNOR'S NEWS CONFERENCE SEVERAL OF US LOOKED FOR INSIGHT INTO HOW HE'LL CLOSE A MAJOR BUDGET DEFICIT FOR THE COMING YLE ELIMINATION OF ANY PROGRAM. HE'S GOT A HIRING FREEZE IN PLACE, BUT WILL NOT CALL FOR LAYOFFS. HE SAID HE'S FINIALIZED THE BUDGET HE'LL PRESENT NOW, BUT WON'T SAY MORE UNTIL HIS ADDRESS TO A JOINT SESSION TUESDAY AFTERNOON.

APPS FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES, AND TO PUT RESTAURANT REVIEWS OR SHOPPING DEALS AT OUR FINGERTIPS. BUT THERE ARE OTHER APPS OUT THERE, ONES THAT CAN HELP CHANGE PEOPLE'S LIVES. GARVIN THOMAS HAS MORE. nats: "green brown" LIKE MILLIONS OF OTHER AMERICANS, JEFF KRER IS COLOR BLIND. FORTUNATELY FOR HIM THOUGH WHEN IT COMES TO PICKING OUT HIS CLOTHES, HIS WIFE IS MORE THAN WILLING TO HELP HIM OUT. "We've got it down to a science where I'll be walking out and she'll say, 'Stop, ' and she'll just go, 'No, ' and then you know, back in. " BUT NOW WHEN SHE'S NOT AVAILABLE, THERE IS SOMEONE OR SOME THING ELSE KRAMER CAN TURN TO, HIS PHONE. A NEW SMARTPHONE APP JUST RELEASED THAT HELPS COLOR BLIND PEOPLE SEE WHAT THEY'VE BEEN MISSING. "Alright, now I can really, now that really jumps out. " THE DANKAM IS AN ADJUSTABLE FILTER THAT THE USER CAN CUSTOMIZE TO COMPENSATE FOR HIS OR HER DEFICIENCY. "If you're color blind, you really just can not tell that red from that green. " DANKAM IS NAMED FOR IT'S DEVELOPER, DAN KAMINSKY. AN INTERNET SECURITY EXPERT BY DAY, KAMINSKY SAID HE BUILT THE APP TO HELP A FRIEND WHO IS COLOR BLIND, AND IS FRANKLY SHOCKED BY HOW MANY PEOPLE HE HAS ENDED UP HELPING. "People are telling me they're in tears. " "Now if you're not colorblind, you may be wondering why you should care about an app like this? Well, because it's an example of where mobile technology is heading. What started out as a way to listen to music or play games is turning out to be so much more and we're just at the beginning of the revolution. " "Mobile devices solving problems in ways we could never even think of doing before. " RADHA BASU IS WITH SANTA CLARA UNIVERSITY'S CENTER FOR SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND SOCIETY. SHE POINTS TO APPS THAT TURN MOBILE PHONES INTO MICROSCOPES, HEART MONITORS, HEARING AIDS, EVEN ONES THAT HELP BLIND PEOPLE NAVIGATE CITY STREETS. TRULY LIFE CHANGING, PERHAPS LIFE SAVING APPLICATIONS. "Problems of society that we never thought we could solve before that are starting to get addressed. " AND "STARTING" BASU SAYS, IS THE KEY WORD. IT'S JUST A MATTER OF TIME BEFORE TECHNOLOGY HELPS ALL OF US SEE THE WORLD AROUND US A LITTLE DIFFERENTLY. THANKS FOR JOINING US AT 5:00, NEWS 4 AT SIX WITH MICHAEL AND CAROL STARTS NOW, GOOD EVENING I'M CAROL GOLDSMITH. AND I'M MICHAEL COGDILL. SNOW IS MOVING INTO THE MOUNTAINS TONIGHT. AND THERE'

As dawn awakened a drowsy Stanford campus, eight sweaty students were cooling down from a rigorous Wednesday workout, savoring the camaraderie before disbanding for distant commutes -- to Santa Clara, San Jose and Berkeley.

Since the Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) ended at Stanford in 1973, students in the military program have had to travel to other schools to get their military training, squeezing in classes in Navigation or Leadership Training alongside calculus, literature and other courses that comprise a well-rounded liberal arts education.

But a renewal of ROTC at Stanford and other elite universities is now under consideration, suggesting a reconciliation of two cultures that had grown far apart.

ROTC was booted off Stanford's campus because of deep anti-war sentiments, weak military-based courses and the discrimination against gays long practiced by the armed forces. But memories of the Vietnam War are fading. The trauma of Sept. 11 has renewed patriotism among youth. And, most recently, the anti-gay "don't ask, don't tell" has been repealed.

Meanwhile, the military wants to significantly expand the number of ROTC programs on college campuses, its supply of officers stretched thin by simultaneous wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

"It would really help," says Jimmy Ruck, 21, a Stanford senior who wakes twice a week at 5:20 a.m., meets fellow cadet Oliver Ennis, borrows a campus Zipcar and drives 20 miles to Santa Clara University, where they lead the Army's Bronco Battalion. Other students attend San Jose State for Air Force training and UC Berkeley for Navy and Marines training.

"Sometimes it feels like we spend more time there, than here," said Ruck, who wants to be a military intelligence officer. "Stanford and the military are missing out on an exchange of ideas that go both ways."

Added Ennis, 22, who plans to join the infantry: "We don't get to do some Stanford activities. ... And we don't get much sleep."

Although the two institutions embrace very different cultures and protocols, for decades ROTC programs were an easy fit on campuses across the nation. They offer military coursework and physical drills, monthly stipends and scholarship money. Upon graduation, they guarantee a job. Equipped with a four-year degree and officer training, ROTC graduates enter the military several notches ahead of enlisted men and women.

But in 1968, amid anger among the student body over the military's invasion of Cambodia, arsonists attacked Stanford's ROTC building, burning it to the ground. The program was entirely jettisoned, after great debate, five years later.

The decision to allow ROTC to return to Stanford rests with the faculty because only professors can evaluate the rigor of the curriculum. Over the past two weeks, the faculty senate's committee on ROTC has sponsored meetings for students and faculty, and is scheduled to make a recommendation in May.

Similar debates are under way at Harvard, Yale and Columbia.

"The repeal of 'don't ask, don't tell' took one thing off the table," said Ewart Thomas, a psychology professor who heads the committee. "Now, the hard thing is to conceive of what the program would look like, to make it consistent with the academic standards of the university."

But major, perhaps insurmountable, obstacles remain.

Opponents of ROTC are passionate and argue that Stanford still has strong moral and educational reasons for keeping the military off campus, regardless of the repeal of "don't ask, don't tell."

ROTC's warrior ethic has no role on a liberal arts campus, say students with the group Stanford Says No To War.

ROTC is no different from any other employer and deserves no special status, added law student Sam Windley, president of the group. "ROTC is an occupational decision. Stanford's students do not have convenient access to every occupational opportunity, and it would be impossible for the university to make it so."

Others note that it still violates colleges' nondiscrimination policies because the military bans transsexuals. "It is antithetical to Stanford's nondiscrimination clause," said Alok Vaid-Menon, president of Stanford Students for Queer Liberation.

Faculty disapprove of some ROTC programs that require cadets and midshipmen to enter the university with a predetermined major -- a policy that conflicts with Stanford's emphasis on academic exploration.

And they worry about students who receive ROTC scholarships, then change their mind and are penalized -- a policy that one professor called "financial coercion."

History professor Bart Bernstein, who helped lead the movement against ROTC 40 years ago, disapproved of ROTC for several additional reasons. "It requires that the faculty be appointed by the Pentagon, not by the university. Secondly, the course content ... is not as rigorous, not as demanding, not as deep and does not require the same level of analysis."

Bernstein's third objection: "Students in ROTC courses are not as intellectually free as they are in Stanford courses -- for instance, they are not allowed to criticize the president of the U.S., foreign policy and military action."

"One can accept and endorse the military," said Bernstein, who joined ROTC as a teenager, "and still believe ROTC is inappropriate and propose that officers be recruited and trained in other ways."

But ROTC supporters say elite universities like Stanford have gone AWOL when it comes to military service. Stanford students have been spared the grievous cost of combat, and are disconnected from the realities of service. Tomorrow's leaders should understand the burden of national defense, they argue.

In early March, professors William Perry, the former U.S. secretary of defense, and Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David Kennedy made a stirring case to return ROTC.

"We are in danger of seriously compromising a 200-year-old tradition of the citizen soldier," warned Kennedy, describing the emergence of a "military caste" unfamiliar to the civilian public.

Although Stanford has not yet decided what formal recognition would entail, it could mean that the university creates a space for ROTC students and veterans to gather, opens ROTC classes to traditional students, allows recruitment and promotes the military as a legitimate career option for its graduates. Academic credit for classes would be decided on an individual basis.

The final decision will need to balance many competing priorities, Thomas said.

"If the university is not ready to make a change, so be it. At least we'll be able to say 'This is what it could look like.'"

Book Review: 'What I Learned Before I Sold to Warren Buffett' | View Clip01/20/2011gurufocus.com

What do you like that we are doing? What do you not like that we are doing? What are we not doing that you would like? – Barnett Helzberg's three “magic questions” With the large number of books related to Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway, it is necessary to be selective when it comes to choosing books that are worthy of attention. Readers interested in Warren Buffett's background and life experiences can select one or both of the comprehensive biographies that have appeared in recent years while those who are looking for insight into Mr. Buffett's investment techniques can select from a constantly growing catalog of books (for a recent selection, we recommend Prem Jain's Buffett Beyond Value). Perhaps a more interesting choice for those who are primarily interested in building a business are the books written by individuals who have sold their companies to Berkshire Hathaway in recent years. Bill Child's book, The R.C. Willey Story: How to Build a Business Warren Buffett Would Buy, is an inspiring story for any entrepreneur. Along the same lines, we recently reviewed Barnett C. Helzberg Jr.'s book What I Learned Before I Sold to Warren Buffett, and found the contents to be useful, although with a somewhat different focus from The R.C. Willey Story. Mr. Helzberg's book was published in 2003. When Barnett C. Helzberg Jr. became CEO of Helzberg Diamonds in 1963, the Helzberg name was already firmly established with over fifteen retail shops operating in six markets. The company was founded in 1915 by Mr. Helzberg's grandfather and run by his father for several decades through the Great Depression and post-war years. Mr. Helzberg was 29 years old when he took over management of the company and quickly took advantage of the growth of suburban shopping malls to expand Helzberg's operations. While the book contains some valuable insights into the development of Helzberg Diamonds over the subsequent decades, the book is not a chronological history or narrative of the company's development. Instead, Mr. Helzberg wrote eighty brief chapters each covering a different management challenge that he faced over the years. Helzberg Hints on Entrepreneurship The eighty “Helzberg Hints” are divided into six themes: Managing, Decision Making, Hiring, Inspiring, Communicating, and Focusing. Most of the chapters focus on a common management problem and then proposes common-sense approaches to grappling with the decision making process. For example, there are hints related to managing your ego, dealing with difficult customers, making good hiring decisions, adjusting prices, encouraging and motivating high achievers, collecting feedback, and doing business with friends and family. Mr. Helzberg's “three magic questions”, quoted at the beginning of this review, are designed to encourage open feedback from all constituencies — employees, customers, suppliers, and (presumably) shareholders. The questions seem simple but it is not that common to do business with individuals who ask for feedback in that manner. Throughout the text, there are other similar suggestions that could prove useful for entrepreneurs and managers. Not a Complete History of Helzberg Diamonds What this book does not provide is a comprehensive narrative of Helzberg Diamond's corporate history, but that does not appear to have been the author's goal. The subtitle of the book is “An Entrepreneur's Guide To Developing a Highly Successful Company”, and based on this goal, the book certainly delivers. However, some readers may be left with a desire to know more about the company's development over time. In Warren Buffett's 1995 Letter to Shareholders, he describes how Mr. Helzberg first approached him regarding selling the company to Berkshire. Mr. Helzberg also goes into some detail regarding these circumstances, and it seems to demonstrate that he is a man who believes in seizing opportunities when they arise: In May 1994, a week or so after the Annual Meeting, I was crossing the street at 58th and Fifth Avenue in New York, when a woman called out my name. I listened as she told me she'd been to, and had enjoyed, the Annual Meeting. A few seconds later, a man who'd heard the woman stop me did so as well. He turned out to be Barnett Helzberg, Jr., who owned four shares of Berkshire and had also been at our meeting. In our few minutes of conversation, Barnett said he had a business we might be interested in. When people say that, it usually turns out they have a lemonade stand – with potential, of course, to quickly grow into the next Microsoft. So I simply asked Barnett to send me particulars. That, I thought to myself. will be the end of that. Not long after, Barnett sent me the financial statements of Helzberg's Diamond Shops. The company had been started by his grandfather in 1915 from a single store in Kansas City and had developed by the time we met into a group with 134 stores in 23 states. Sales had grown from $10 million in 1974 to $53 million in 1984 and $282 million in 1994. We weren't talking lemonade stands. Over the past fifteen years under Berkshire's ownership, Helzberg Diamond's store count has increased to 234 stores operating in 37 states. Recent Development at Helzberg Diamonds In his 1995 letter to shareholders, Mr. Buffett described how Helzberg Diamonds had capable management in place with Jeff Comment in charge as CEO, and that Berkshire would not have made the acquisition without Mr. Comment staying on board. Unfortunately, Mr. Comment passed away at the age of 60 in 2004. Mr. Buffett named H. Marvin Beasley, who had served previously as Helzberg's President, as the new Chairman and CEO of Helzberg Diamonds. Mr. Beasley resigned abruptly in April 2009 in midst of the recession. The abrupt resignation and lack of detail in Berkshire's press release led to some speculation at the time. In a rare move, Mr. Buffett looked outside the company for a new CEO and named Beryl Raff to the position. Ms. Raff previously held a number of executive roles at J. C. Penny. Readers who wish to gain insight into entrepreneurship from a proven manager would do well to read Mr. Helzberg's book. For those who are more interested in the story behind a business that Berkshire eventually purchased, Bill Child's book may be a better choice. The author of this article owns shares of Berkshire Hathaway. Ravi Nagarajan is a private investor and Editor of The Rational Walk website. Ravi focuses on applying value investing techniques to find securities trading well below intrinsic business value. Ravi has over 15 years of experience in the financial markets and started investing on a full time basis in 2009. From 1996 to 2009, Ravi held a number of technical and executive level positions in the commercial software industry. Ravi graduated Summa Cum Laude from Santa Clara University with a degree in finance. Visit his website The Rational Walk

Q My new sweetie lives in Antioch and commutes to San Leandro. It seems that regardless of whether he drives or takes BART, the commute takes upward of two hours each way -- even at 5:30 a.m. This is on routes 4, 242, 680, 24 and 880.

Rebecca F.

Oakland

A I should feel sorry for him, but maybe you are the one deserving sympathy.

Q I'm tired of hearing him grouse about it, but I don't know what to suggest. Are there back roads or are they just as bad? He doesn't even have a way to get to BART except by car or a bus that doesn't run very often. It takes 40 minutes just to drive 15 miles to BART.

Rebecca F.

A Maybe he can move.

Q Moving closer is not feasible either. Like every other homeowner, he's got an underwater mortgage. I've always planned my commute around where I live and work. I guess not everyone does that, but the deed is done now. If I were in his shoes, I'd ask my employer to allow me to telecommute at least two days a week, crash close to work on my drive-in days or drive in at 4 a.m. But that is pretty darn wearying, too.

Rebecca F.

A I'm getting weary just reading about it. Perhaps Roadshow readers can offer some suggestions?

Speaking of slow commutes, the Texas Transportation Institute released its 2009 nationwide congestion report for 439 urban areas. It found that stop-and-go traffic caused Americans to travel 4.8 billion hours more and to buy 3.9 billion more gallons of gas, up slightly from 2008.

For each driver across the U.S., this represents a yearly delay of 34 extra hours on the road and an extra $808 in costs. While this is lower than in 2006, before the recession, traffic tie-ups are trending back up, as Rebecca's friend can attest.

The institute ranked cities in several categories but did not give them an overall ranking. The San Francisco-Oakland area ranks as roughly the fifth most congested in places with a population of 3 million or more. Motorists there experience 49 hours of delay annually.

San Jose comes in around sixth among areas with 1 million to 3 million people. San Jose drivers endure 35 hours of delay a year.

The worst: Chicago, Washington, Los Angeles and Houston. Go to http://mobility.tamu.edu/ums to view the report.

Q Mr. Roadshow, can you tell me about how much time I need to get to the Mathilda Avenue turnoff from Highway 101 in Sunnyvale from my home near Santa Clara University? I need to pick someone up in that area about 9 a.m. Thursday.

Jackie Mattison

Santa Clara

A Highway 101 can be a beast during the morning commute until as late as 10 a.m. I would plan on extra time, but you might be able to make the trip in 20 minutes or so, since you don't have far to travel. Go to www.511.org, click on the "Traffic" tab, and then click on Predict-A-Trip.

Q Why have the traffic lights at Interstate 280-Saratoga Avenue been changed -- for the worst -- this past week?

Armando Jimenez

San Jose

A Man, I'm even hearing about this at my nearby dog park as I exercise the Roadshow retrievers. The news is not good. Intersections along Saratoga from Kiely Boulevard to Blackford Avenue are not currently online with San Jose's central signal system, so they are not in sync with one another. In addition, there are a number of bad loops at a few intersections that have to be repaired. Budget cuts and layoffs have stretched city resources, so repairs may take some time.

Q During the recent repaving of Highway 9 in the Santa Cruz Mountains, they restriped it such that there is now a double double yellow line blocking the entrance to New Leaf Market. So to pull into the New Leaf parking lot, you have to drive another 20 yards, nose into the parking by the highway, back out into traffic to head back north and make a right turn into the parking lot. What shining example of human intellect decided that this would be a safer course of action?

Larry Cohen

A It's a mistake. The highway will be restriped to allow left turns in a couple of weeks.

Q Does Menlo Park have any plans to repave Bay Road between Ringwood and Marsh roads? It's a great ride if you like bouncing around.

Peter Santero

A Yep, it will be repaved after the installation of a pipeline, which should begin in the next couple of months.

ROTC looks for campus niche \\◾◾ Stanford weighs renewal of program after four decades, but resistance remains

Bay Area News Group

As dawn awakened a drowsy Stanford campus, eight sweaty students were cooling down from a rigorous Wednesday workout, savoring the camaraderie before disbanding for distant commutes — to Santa Clara, San Jose and Berkeley.

Since the Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) ended at Stanford in 1973, students in the military program have had to travel to other schools to get their military training, squeezing in classes in navigation or leadership training alongside calculus, literature and other courses that comprise a wellrounded liberal arts education.

But a renewal of ROTC at Stanford and other elite universities is now under consideration, suggesting a reconciliation of two cultures that had grown far apart.

ROTC was booted off Stanford's campus because of deep anti-war sentiments, weak military-based courses and the discrimination against gays long practiced by the armed forces. But memories of theVietnam War are fading. The trauma of Sept. 11 has renewed patriotism among youth. And, most recently, the anti-gay “don't ask, don't tell” has been repealed.

Meanwhile, the military wants to significantly expand the number of ROTC programs on college campuses, its supply of officers stretched thin by simultaneous wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

“It would really help,” says Jimmy Ruck, 21, a Stanford senior who

ROTC, page A5

Maria J. Avila Lopez / Bay Area News Group

Jimmy Ruck, left, and Oliver Ennis perform their Wednesday morning workout at Cobb Track and Angell Field on Wednesday. The two are Stanford students participating in the ROTC.

ROTC

From page A1

wakes twice a week at 5:20 a.m., meets fellow cadet Oliver Ennis, borrows a campus Zipcar and drives 20 miles to Santa Clara University, where they lead the Army's Bronco Battalion. Other students attend San Jose State for Air Force training and UC-Berkeley for Navy and Marines training.

“Sometimes it feels like we spend more time there, than here,” said Ruck, who wants to be a military intelligence officer. “Stanford and the military are missing out on an exchange of ideas that go both ways.”

Added Ennis, 22, who plans to join the infantry: “We don't get to do some Stanford activities. And we don't get much sleep.”

Guaranteed job

Although the two institutions embrace very different cultures and protocols, for decades ROTC programs were an easy fit on campuses across the nation. They offer military coursework and physical drills, monthly stipends and scholarship money. Upon graduation, they guarantee a job. Equipped with a four-year degree and officer training, ROTC graduates enter the military several notches ahead of other newly enlisted men and women.

But in 1968, amid anger among the student body over the military's invasion of Cambodia, arsonists attacked Stanford's ROTC building, burning it to the ground. The program was entirely jettisoned, after great debate, five years later.

The decision to allow ROTC to return to Stanford rests with the faculty because only professors can evaluate the rigor of the curriculum. Over the past two weeks, the faculty senate's committee on ROTC has sponsored meetings for students and faculty, and is scheduled to make a recommendation in May.

Similar debates are under way at Harvard, Yale and Columbia.

“The repeal of ‘don't ask, don't tell' took one thing off the table,” said Ewart Thomas, a psychology professor who heads the committee. “Now, the hard thing is to conceive of what the program would look like, to make it consistent with the academic standards of the university.”

But major, perhaps insurmountable, obstacles remain.

Opponents of ROTC are passionate and argue that Stanford still has strong moral and educational reasons for keeping the military off campus, regardless of the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell.

ROTC's warrior ethic has no role on a liberal arts campus, say students with the group Stanford Says No ToWar.

ROTC is no different from any other employer and deserves no special status, added law student Sam Windley, president of the group. “ROTC is an occupational decision. Stanford's students do not have convenient access to every occupational opportunity, and it would be impossible for the university to make it so.”

Others note that it still violates colleges' nondiscrimination policies because the military bans transsexuals. “It is antithetical to Stanford's nondiscrimination clause,” said Alok Vaid-Menon, president of Stanford Students for Queer Liberation.

Military strictures

Faculty disapprove of some ROTC programs that require cadets and midshipmen to enter the university with a predetermined major — a policy that conflicts with Stanford's emphasis on academic exploration.

And they worry about students who receive ROTC scholarships, then change their mind and are penalized — a policy that one professor called “financial coercion.”

History professor Bart Bernstein, who helped lead the movement against ROTC 40 years ago, disapproved of ROTC for several additional reasons. “It requires that the faculty be appointed by the Pentagon, not by the university. Secondly, the course content ... is not as rigorous, not as demanding, not as deep and does not require the same level of analysis.”

Bernstein's third objection: “Students in ROTC courses are not as intellectually free as they are in Stanford courses — for instance, they are not allowed to criticize the president of the U.S., foreign policy and military action.”

“One can accept and endorse the military,” said Bernstein, who joined ROTC as a teenager, “and still believe ROTC is inappropriate and propose that officers be recruited and trained in other ways.”

But ROTC supporters say elite universities like Stanford have gone AWOL when it comes to military service. Stanford students have been spared the grievous cost of combat, and are disconnected from the realities of service. Tomorrow's leaders should understand the burden of national defense, they argue.

In early March, professors William Perry, the former U.S. secretary of defense, and Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David Kennedy made a stirring case to return ROTC.

“We are in danger of seriously compromising a 200-year-old tradition of the citizen soldier,” warned Kennedy, describing the emergence of a “military caste” unfamiliar to the civilian public.

Although Stanford has not yet decided what formal recognition would entail, it could mean that the university creates a space for ROTC students and veterans to gather, opens ROTC classes to traditional students, allows recruitment and promotes the military as a legitimate career option for its graduates. Academic credit for classes would be decided on an individual basis.

The final decision will need to balance many competing priorities, Thomas said.

“If the university is not ready to make a change, so be it. At least we'll be able to say ‘This is what it could look like.'”

(CEI) today announced that former Vice President of Energy Alternatives John Curcio has been promoted to chief commercial officer to drive the company's commercial strategy in new and existing markets to meet long-term corporate objectives. Taking over Curcio's role in the Energy Alternatives Division as vice president of operations is former Vice President of Pre-Construction and Estimating Paul Aggarwal.

“Since founding the Energy Alternatives Division in 2007, John has exponentially grown the division's revenue by leveraging our EPC capabilities and focusing on Design/Build projects that demonstrate our technical expertise,” said John Boncher, president and chief executive officer of CEI. “In addition, John has successfully completed a series of large-scale projects that showcase our ability to safely complete complex systems in a short period of time. Adding Paul's management and operational expertise to the Energy Alternatives Division allows John to do what he does best: identify and capitalize on new opportunities.”

About John Curcio

Prior to becoming chief commercial officer, Curcio oversaw CEI's Energy Alternatives Division as vice president. Under Curcio's leadership, the Division's revenue grew twenty-fold in a three-year period. In his new position, Curcio will expand his strategic role to identify and execute opportunities in new and existing markets to help fuel CEI's growth.

Curcio joined CEI in 1993 and has served in high-level engineering, estimating and project management roles. While a project manager, he oversaw more than $170 million of installed electrical systems. Prior to joining CEI, Curcio worked at a national consulting engineering firm. He began his career as a consulting engineer designing electrical distribution, lighting and Life Safety Systems for brokerage and banking trading floors and high-rise office and hotel clients in Manhattan, New York. He holds a bachelor's degree in Architectural Engineering from Pennsylvania State University, is a licensed professional electrical engineer in seven states and is a U.S. Green Building Council LEED® Accredited Professional.

About Paul Aggarwal

Aggarwal has spent more than two decades in the electrical construction industry. In his previous role as vice president of pre-construction and estimating at CEI, Aggarwal perfected his budget management and competitive intelligence skills. He joined CEI as an estimator more than 20 years ago and served in project management. He became vice president of estimating in 2005 and has overseen many large, complex, mission-critical projects for industry-leading clients on the Fortune 500 list. Aggarwal holds a bachelor's degree in Industrial Technology from San Jose State University and a master's degree in business administration from Santa Clara University. About (CEI) is a national engineering and construction company headquartered in San Jose, Calif. With a 56-year history of open and honest dealings with customers, vendors, contractors and employees, CEI specializes in technically complex, mission-critical, schedule-challenged, private, commercial and public works projects. CEI's Energy Alternatives Division analyzes, engineers, procures, finances, constructs, maintains and operates solar and alternative energy solutions. For more information, visit www.cei.com. Photos/Multimedia� Gallery Available: http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/mmg.cgi?eid=6579002&lang=en

Hewlett-Packard announced a massive overhaul of its board of directors on Thursday, naming five new members in an unusual shake-up aimed at moving the world's largest tech company into a new chapter after months of corporate drama surrounding its former CEO.

The new directors include a well-known Silicon Valley figure -- former eBay Chief Executive Meg Whitman, who lost a race for California governor last fall -- and four executives whose résumés include experience in international business, technology and corporate dealmaking.

They will replace two directors who served on HP's board during three major controversies over the past five years, and two more who joined more recently, during the tenure of former CEO Mark Hurd, who was forced to resign last summer in a scandal over his personal relationship with a part-time marketing contractor. HP is also adding one new seat to the board, increasing the number of members from 12 to 13.

HP's board was widely criticized after Hurd's ouster: Supporters of the former CEO complained that the board was too quick to dump a successful chief executive, while some shareholders complained that the board was too generous in letting him leave with a huge severance package. Analysts said Thursday that the new board needs to stabilize the company while helping it adapt to a rapidly changing, and intensely competitive, technology market.

"The board said 'Let's look forward. "... We've been through a lot,' " said Raymond Lane, who joined the board as chairman in September, when the company also hired veteran software executive Léo Apotheker to replace Hurd as CEO.

Lane, a former Oracle president who has assumed a prominent role at HP, told the Mercury News that directors agreed it was time to "refresh the board" with new members who can bring a range of business perspectives to the company. "After bringing Léo on, the board felt that we had closed a chapter," he added.

A majority of newcomers

Several analysts pegged the move as a clear sign that Apotheker is beginning to remake the Palo Alto-based tech giant. HP has said Apotheker is working on a "bold, solid plan" for the company's future, although he declined to elaborate Thursday.

With the new appointments, seven of HP's 13 directors will have joined the company in the past six months.

"That's a huge change. It changes the entire dynamic of the board," said veteran industry observer and tech consultant Rob Enderle, president of the Enderle Group.

"The existing board had a lot of image issues. It's probably best that they start with a clean slate," Enderle added. He was referring to the controversy over Hurd's ouster and an earlier scandal in 2006 when an investigation into news leaks left the company apologizing for obtaining reporters' telephone records under false pretenses. HP was also rocked by another controversy in 2005, when the board ousted then-CEO Carly Fiorina.

In addition to Whitman, the new directors are Shumeet Banerji, the London-based CEO of management consulting firm Booz & Company; Gary Reiner, a private equity adviser and former executive responsible for information technology at General Electric; Patricia Russo, a former CEO of telecommunications giant Alcatel-Lucent; and Dominique Senequier, the Paris-based CEO of AXA Private Equity. They'll join the board effective Friday.

The new directors, like all outside HP board members, will be paid $100,000 annually. They also will receive $175,000 in stocks and/or stock options each year.

HP directors Joel Hyatt, John Joyce, Robert Ryan and Lucille Salhany will not seek re-election to the board at the company's annual shareholder meeting in March, the company said.

Stock ticks upward

The news drew a favorable response from Wall Street, where the company's stock began to climb sharply after word of the impending changes leaked about 15 minutes before the close of trading Thursday. HP shares closed at $46.78, up 46 cents for the day.

Added Brent Bracelin of Pacific Crest Securities: "Clearly there's been a lot of drama that's unfolded at HP in recent years. As we think about HP's ability to succeed in a changing competitive environment, I think board changes are probably a step in the right direction."

But corporate governance experts said it's highly unusual for a company to name so many new board members at once.

"It suggests that this is still an unsettled business," said Stephen Diamond, a law professor at Santa Clara University.

"It will take time for the board to get to know each other," he added. "My concern is it will extend the time frame in which Apotheker is attempting to establish clear leadership."

Noting that several of the board members have experience in consulting and private equity investment, Diamond suggested that HP, which currently sells a wide range of tech products and services, might be planning to reorganize or even spin off some of its divisions.

In an interview, Lane said it would be wrong to view the changes as a purge of board members close to Hurd. "That has nothing to do with it," he said, stressing that the board voted unanimously to accept Hurd's resignation.

"We were fortunate that we had four volunteers who had served a long time and were ready to step back and make some room for new board members," Lane added.

Shareholder suits remain

Sources told the Mercury News that Hyatt and Joyce supported Hurd during much of the board's discussion last summer but ultimately voted for his resignation. Sources said Ryan and Salhany helped oversee the investigation of Hurd's relationship with contractor Jodie Fisher, and Salhany in particular was among the first to tell other directors that she had lost faith in the chief executive.

Salhany had served on the board since 2002 and Ryan was appointed in 2004. Joyce and Hyatt, who both joined in 2007, were among several board members appointed during Hurd's tenure.

HP is still facing several lawsuits from shareholders who contend the company should not have let Hurd leave with a lucrative severance package. A federal judge agreed Thursday to grant a 45-day postponement in one of those cases, after the company said it plans to have outside attorneys and a committee of new directors conduct a review of Hurd's departure.

Hewlett-Packard announced a massive overhaul of its board of directors on Thursday, naming five new members in an unusual shake-up aimed at moving the world's largest tech company into a new chapter after months of corporate drama surrounding its former CEO.

The new directors include a well-known Silicon Valley figure -- former eBay Chief Executive Meg Whitman, who lost a race for California governor last fall -- and four executives whose résumés include experience in international business, technology and corporate dealmaking.

They will replace two directors who served on HP's board during three major controversies over the past five years, and two more who joined more recently, during the tenure of former CEO Mark Hurd, who was forced to resign last summer in a scandal over his personal relationship with a part-time marketing contractor. HP is also adding one new seat to the board, increasing the number of members from 12 to 13.

HP's board was widely criticized after Hurd's ouster: Supporters of the former CEO complained that the board was too quick to dump a successful chief executive, while some shareholders complained that the board was too generous in letting him leave with a huge severance package. Analysts said Thursday that the new board needs to stabilize the company while helping it adapt to a rapidly changing, and intensely competitive, technology market.

"The board said 'Let's look forward. "... We've been through a lot,' " said Raymond Lane, who joined the board as chairman in September, when the company also hired veteran software executive Léo Apotheker to replace Hurd as CEO.

Lane, a former Oracle president who has assumed a prominent role at HP, told the Mercury News that directors agreed it was time to "refresh the board" with new members who can bring a range of business perspectives to the company. "After bringing Léo on, the board felt that we had closed a chapter," he added.

A majority of newcomers

Several analysts pegged the move as a clear sign that Apotheker is beginning to remake the Palo Alto-based tech giant. HP has said Apotheker is working on a "bold, solid plan" for the company's future, although he declined to elaborate Thursday.

With the new appointments, seven of HP's 13 directors will have joined the company in the past six months.

"That's a huge change. It changes the entire dynamic of the board," said veteran industry observer and tech consultant Rob Enderle, president of the Enderle Group.

"The existing board had a lot of image issues. It's probably best that they start with a clean slate," Enderle added. He was referring to the controversy over Hurd's ouster and an earlier scandal in 2006 when an investigation into news leaks left the company apologizing for obtaining reporters' telephone records under false pretenses. HP was also rocked by another controversy in 2005, when the board ousted then-CEO Carly Fiorina.

In addition to Whitman, the new directors are Shumeet Banerji, the London-based CEO of management consulting firm Booz & Company; Gary Reiner, a private equity adviser and former executive responsible for information technology at General Electric; Patricia Russo, a former CEO of telecommunications giant Alcatel-Lucent; and Dominique Senequier, the Paris-based CEO of AXA Private Equity. They'll join the board effective Friday.

The new directors, like all outside HP board members, will be paid $100,000 annually. They also will receive $175,000 in stocks and/or stock options each year.

HP directors Joel Hyatt, John Joyce, Robert Ryan and Lucille Salhany will not seek re-election to the board at the company's annual shareholder meeting in March, the company said.

Stock ticks upward

The news drew a favorable response from Wall Street, where the company's stock began to climb sharply after word of the impending changes leaked about 15 minutes before the close of trading Thursday. HP shares closed at $46.78, up 46 cents for the day.

Added Brent Bracelin of Pacific Crest Securities: "Clearly there's been a lot of drama that's unfolded at HP in recent years. As we think about HP's ability to succeed in a changing competitive environment, I think board changes are probably a step in the right direction."

But corporate governance experts said it's highly unusual for a company to name so many new board members at once.

"It suggests that this is still an unsettled business," said Stephen Diamond, a law professor at Santa Clara University.

"It will take time for the board to get to know each other," he added. "My concern is it will extend the time frame in which Apotheker is attempting to establish clear leadership."

Noting that several of the board members have experience in consulting and private equity investment, Diamond suggested that HP, which currently sells a wide range of tech products and services, might be planning to reorganize or even spin off some of its divisions.

In an interview, Lane said it would be wrong to view the changes as a purge of board members close to Hurd. "That has nothing to do with it," he said, stressing that the board voted unanimously to accept Hurd's resignation.

"We were fortunate that we had four volunteers who had served a long time and were ready to step back and make some room for new board members," Lane added.

Shareholder suits remain

Sources told the Mercury News that Hyatt and Joyce supported Hurd during much of the board's discussion last summer but ultimately voted for his resignation. Sources said Ryan and Salhany helped oversee the investigation of Hurd's relationship with contractor Jodie Fisher, and Salhany in particular was among the first to tell other directors that she had lost faith in the chief executive.

Salhany had served on the board since 2002 and Ryan was appointed in 2004. Joyce and Hyatt, who both joined in 2007, were among several board members appointed during Hurd's tenure.

HP is still facing several lawsuits from shareholders who contend the company should not have let Hurd leave with a lucrative severance package. A federal judge agreed Thursday to grant a 45-day postponement in one of those cases, after the company said it plans to have outside attorneys and a committee of new directors conduct a review of Hurd's departure.

Hewlett-Packard announced a massive overhaul of its board of directors on Thursday, naming five new members in an unusual shake-up aimed at moving the world's largest tech company into a new chapter after months of corporate drama surrounding its former CEO.

The new directors include a well-known Silicon Valley figure -- former eBay Chief Executive Meg Whitman, who lost a race for California governor last fall -- and four executives whose résumés include experience in international business, technology and corporate dealmaking.

They will replace two directors who served on HP's board during three major controversies over the past five years, and two more who joined more recently, during the tenure of former CEO Mark Hurd, who was forced to resign last summer in a scandal over his personal relationship with a part-time marketing contractor. HP is also adding one new seat to the board, increasing the number of members from 12 to 13.

HP's board was widely criticized after Hurd's ouster: Supporters of the former CEO complained that the board was too quick to dump a successful chief executive, while some shareholders complained that the board was too generous in letting him leave with a huge severance package. Analysts said Thursday that the new board needs to stabilize the company while helping it adapt to a rapidly changing, and intensely competitive, technology market.

"The board said 'Let's look forward. "... We've been through a lot,' " said Raymond Lane, who joined the board as chairman in September, when the company also hired veteran software executive Léo Apotheker to replace Hurd as CEO.

Lane, a former Oracle president who has assumed a prominent role at HP, told the Mercury News that directors agreed it was time to "refresh the board" with new members who can bring a range of business perspectives to the company. "After bringing Léo on, the board felt that we had closed a chapter," he added.

A majority of newcomers

Several analysts pegged the move as a clear sign that Apotheker is beginning to remake the Palo Alto-based tech giant. HP has said Apotheker is working on a "bold, solid plan" for the company's future, although he declined to elaborate Thursday.

With the new appointments, seven of HP's 13 directors will have joined the company in the past six months.

"That's a huge change. It changes the entire dynamic of the board," said veteran industry observer and tech consultant Rob Enderle, president of the Enderle Group.

"The existing board had a lot of image issues. It's probably best that they start with a clean slate," Enderle added. He was referring to the controversy over Hurd's ouster and an earlier scandal in 2006 when an investigation into news leaks left the company apologizing for obtaining reporters' telephone records under false pretenses. HP was also rocked by another controversy in 2005, when the board ousted then-CEO Carly Fiorina.

In addition to Whitman, the new directors are Shumeet Banerji, the London-based CEO of management consulting firm Booz & Company; Gary Reiner, a private equity adviser and former executive responsible for information technology at General Electric; Patricia Russo, a former CEO of telecommunications giant Alcatel-Lucent; and Dominique Senequier, the Paris-based CEO of AXA Private Equity. They'll join the board effective Friday.

The new directors, like all outside HP board members, will be paid $100,000 annually. They also will receive $175,000 in stocks and/or stock options each year.

HP directors Joel Hyatt, John Joyce, Robert Ryan and Lucille Salhany will not seek re-election to the board at the company's annual shareholder meeting in March, the company said.

Stock ticks upward

The news drew a favorable response from Wall Street, where the company's stock began to climb sharply after word of the impending changes leaked about 15 minutes before the close of trading Thursday. HP shares closed at $46.78, up 46 cents for the day.

Added Brent Bracelin of Pacific Crest Securities: "Clearly there's been a lot of drama that's unfolded at HP in recent years. As we think about HP's ability to succeed in a changing competitive environment, I think board changes are probably a step in the right direction."

But corporate governance experts said it's highly unusual for a company to name so many new board members at once.

"It suggests that this is still an unsettled business," said Stephen Diamond, a law professor at Santa Clara University.

"It will take time for the board to get to know each other," he added. "My concern is it will extend the time frame in which Apotheker is attempting to establish clear leadership."

Noting that several of the board members have experience in consulting and private equity investment, Diamond suggested that HP, which currently sells a wide range of tech products and services, might be planning to reorganize or even spin off some of its divisions.

In an interview, Lane said it would be wrong to view the changes as a purge of board members close to Hurd. "That has nothing to do with it," he said, stressing that the board voted unanimously to accept Hurd's resignation.

"We were fortunate that we had four volunteers who had served a long time and were ready to step back and make some room for new board members," Lane added.

Shareholder suits remain

Sources told the Mercury News that Hyatt and Joyce supported Hurd during much of the board's discussion last summer but ultimately voted for his resignation. Sources said Ryan and Salhany helped oversee the investigation of Hurd's relationship with contractor Jodie Fisher, and Salhany in particular was among the first to tell other directors that she had lost faith in the chief executive.

Salhany had served on the board since 2002 and Ryan was appointed in 2004. Joyce and Hyatt, who both joined in 2007, were among several board members appointed during Hurd's tenure.

HP is still facing several lawsuits from shareholders who contend the company should not have let Hurd leave with a lucrative severance package. A federal judge agreed Thursday to grant a 45-day postponement in one of those cases, after the company said it plans to have outside attorneys and a committee of new directors conduct a review of Hurd's departure.

Hewlett-Packard is planning to hire outside lawyers to review its handling of last summer's controversial ouster of then-Chief Executive Mark Hurd, including the board's decision to grant Hurd millions of dollars in severance benefits that have drawn some shareholders' ire.

HP and a group of shareholders who filed a federal lawsuit over Hurd's departure are asking a judge to put their case on hold while the investigation is carried out by a committee of board members, who would be assisted by "independent outside counsel" in reviewing allegations that the board should have fired Hurd for cause, without any severance benefits.

Such an investigation would not be an unusual response for a company in HP's position, said Santa Clara University law professor Stephen Diamond, an expert in corporate governance. But even if the review upholds the company's actions, it serves to underscore the ongoing controversy over Hurd's departure, which has sparked a flurry of shareholder lawsuits and a review by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Hurd was allowed to resign last August after HP's board concluded he showed poor judgment and violated company standards in connection with his personal relationship with a part-time marketing contractor, Jodie Fisher, who had worked at company sales events.

The shock of his sudden departure prompted Hurd supporters to publicly accuse the board of overreacting. Other critics complained that directors should not have let Hurd leave with a severance package worth $50 million or more in cash and stock options. Hurd later gave up some of those options after he went to work for rival tech company Oracle.

Representatives for HP and Hurd declined to comment Wednesday. But, according to a recent filing in San Jose federal court, Hurd's lawyer has complained that HP's attorneys are not giving him copies of documents they shared with attorneys for stockholders who are pursuing similar lawsuits in a Delaware court.

Hurd is a defendant in the San Jose federal case. Before endorsing HP's request for a postponement, Hurd's lawyer wants HP to provide him with the documents it turned over in Delaware, and with a more recent complaint from another, unidentified shareholder. That complaint is what prompted HP's proposal to review its handling of Hurd's departure.

HP used the services of an outside law firm to investigate Hurd's actions last summer. But court filings indicate the company is proposing a new review by presumably different lawyers and a committee of directors who were not on the board when Hurd was ousted.

Although the filing did not name the directors, the only two who have joined the board since August are Ray Lane, the board's nonexecutive chairman, and CEO Léo Apotheker, who was hired last fall to replace Hurd.

HP to review its handling of Hurd departure01/20/2011Alameda Times-Star

Hewlett-Packard is planning to hire outside lawyers to review its handling of last summer's controversial ouster of then-Chief Executive Mark Hurd, including the board's decision to grant Hurd millions of dollars in severance benefits that have drawn some shareholders' ire.

HP and a group of shareholders who filed a federal lawsuit over Hurd's departure are asking a judge to put their case on hold while the investigation is carried out by a committee of board members, who would be assisted by "independent outside counsel" in reviewing allegations that the board should have fired Hurd for cause, without any severance benefits.

Such an investigation would not be an unusual response for a company in HP's position, said Santa Clara University law professor Stephen Diamond, an expert in corporate governance. But even if the review upholds the company's actions, it serves to underscore the ongoing controversy over Hurd's departure, which has sparked a flurry of shareholder lawsuits and a review by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Hurd was allowed to resign last August after HP's board concluded he showed poor judgment and violated company standards in connection with his personal relationship with a part-time marketing contractor, Jodie Fisher, who had worked at company sales events.

The shock of his sudden departure prompted Hurd supporters to publicly accuse the board of overreacting. Other critics complained that directors should not have let Hurd leave with a severance package worth $50 million or more in cash and stock options. Hurd later gave up some of those options after he went to work for rival tech company Oracle.

Representatives for HP and Hurd declined to comment Wednesday. But, according to a recent filing in San Jose federal court, Hurd's lawyer has complained that HP's attorneys are not giving him copies of documents they shared with attorneys for stockholders who are pursuing similar lawsuits in a Delaware court.

Hurd is a defendant in the San Jose federal case. Before endorsing HP's request for a postponement, Hurd's lawyer wants HP to provide him with the documents it turned over in Delaware, and with a more recent complaint from another, unidentified shareholder. That complaint is what prompted HP's proposal to review its handling of Hurd's departure.

HP used the services of an outside law firm to investigate Hurd's actions last summer. But court filings indicate the company is proposing a new review by presumably different lawyers and a committee of directors who were not on the board when Hurd was ousted.

Although the filing did not name the directors, the only two who have joined the board since August are Ray Lane, the board's nonexecutive chairman, and CEO Léo Apotheker, who was hired last fall to replace Hurd.

FILE -- Hewlett-Packard is planning to hire outside lawyers to review its handling of last summer's controversial ouster of then-chief executive Mark Hurd.

More HP coverage

Hewlett-Packard is planning to hire outside lawyers to review its handling of last summer's controversial ouster of then-Chief Executive Mark Hurd, including the board's decision to grant Hurd millions of dollars in severance benefits that have drawn some shareholders' ire.

HP and a group of shareholders who filed a federal lawsuit over Hurd's departure are asking a judge to put their case on hold while the investigation is carried out by a committee of board members, who would be assisted by "independent outside counsel" in reviewing allegations that the board should have fired Hurd for cause, without any severance benefits.

Such an investigation would not be an unusual response for a company in HP's position, said Santa Clara University law professor Stephen Diamond, an expert in corporate governance. But even if the review upholds the company's actions, it serves to underscore the ongoing controversy over Hurd's departure, which has sparked a flurry of shareholder lawsuits and a review by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Hurd was allowed to resign last August after HP's board concluded he showed poor judgment and violated company standards in connection with his personal relationship with a part-time marketing contractor, Jodie Fisher, who had worked at company sales events.

The shock of his sudden departure prompted Hurd supporters to publicly accuse the board of overreacting. Other critics complained that directors should

not have let Hurd leave with a severance package worth $50 million or more in cash and stock options. Hurd later gave up some of those options after he went to work for rival tech company Oracle.

Representatives for HP and Hurd declined to comment Wednesday. But, according to a recent filing in San Jose federal court, Hurd's lawyer has complained that HP's attorneys are not giving him copies of documents they shared with attorneys for stockholders who are pursuing similar lawsuits in a Delaware court.

Hurd is a defendant in the San Jose federal case. Before endorsing HP's request for a postponement, Hurd's lawyer wants HP to provide him with the documents it turned over in Delaware, and with a more recent complaint from another, unidentified shareholder. That complaint is what prompted HP's proposal to review its handling of Hurd's departure.

HP used the services of an outside law firm to investigate Hurd's actions last summer. But court filings indicate the company is proposing a new review by presumably different lawyers and a committee of directors who were not on the board when Hurd was ousted.

Although the filing did not name the directors, the only two who have joined the board since August are Ray Lane, the board's nonexecutive chairman, and CEO Léo Apotheker, who was hired last fall to replace Hurd.

Hewlett-Packard is planning to hire outside lawyers to review its handling of last summer's controversial ouster of then-Chief Executive Mark Hurd, including the board's decision to grant Hurd millions of dollars in severance benefits that have drawn some shareholders' ire.

HP and a group of shareholders who filed a federal lawsuit over Hurd's departure are asking a judge to put their case on hold while the investigation is carried out by a committee of board members, who would be assisted by "independent outside counsel" in reviewing allegations that the board should have fired Hurd for cause, without any severance benefits.

Such an investigation would not be an unusual response for a company in HP's position, said Santa Clara University law professor Stephen Diamond, an expert in corporate governance. But even if the review upholds the company's actions, it serves to underscore the ongoing controversy over Hurd's departure, which has sparked a flurry of shareholder lawsuits and a review by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Hurd was allowed to resign last August after HP's board concluded he showed poor judgment and violated company standards in connection with his personal relationship with a part-time marketing contractor, Jodie Fisher, who had worked at company sales events.

The shock of his sudden departure prompted Hurd supporters to publicly accuse the board of overreacting. Other critics complained that directors should

not have let Hurd leave with a severance package worth $50 million or more in cash and stock options. Hurd later gave up some of those options after he went to work for rival tech company Oracle.

Representatives for HP and Hurd declined to comment Wednesday. But, according to a recent filing in San Jose federal court, Hurd's lawyer has complained that HP's attorneys are not giving him copies of documents they shared with attorneys for stockholders who are pursuing similar lawsuits in a Delaware court.

Hurd is a defendant in the San Jose federal case. Before endorsing HP's request for a postponement, Hurd's lawyer wants HP to provide him with the documents it turned over in Delaware, and with a more recent complaint from another, unidentified shareholder. That complaint is what prompted HP's proposal to review its handling of Hurd's departure.

HP used the services of an outside law firm to investigate Hurd's actions last summer. But court filings indicate the company is proposing a new review by presumably different lawyers and a committee of directors who were not on the board when Hurd was ousted.

Although the filing did not name the directors, the only two who have joined the board since August are Ray Lane, the board's nonexecutive chairman, and CEO Leo Apotheker, who was hired last fall to replace Hurd.

Hewlett-Packard is planning to hire outside lawyers to review its handling of last summer's controversial ouster of then-Chief Executive Mark Hurd, including the board's decision to grant Hurd millions of dollars in severance benefits that have drawn some shareholders' ire.

HP and a group of shareholders who filed a federal lawsuit over Hurd's departure are asking a judge to put their case on hold while the investigation is carried out by a committee of board members, who would be assisted by "independent outside counsel" in reviewing allegations that the board should have fired Hurd for cause, without any severance benefits.

Such an investigation would not be an unusual response for a company in HP's position, said Santa Clara University law professor Stephen Diamond, an expert in corporate governance. But even if the review upholds the company's actions, it serves to underscore the ongoing controversy over Hurd's departure, which has sparked a flurry of shareholder lawsuits and a review by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Hurd was allowed to resign last August after HP's board concluded he showed poor judgment and violated company standards in connection with his personal relationship with a part-time marketing contractor, Jodie Fisher, who had worked at company sales events.

The shock of his sudden departure prompted Hurd supporters to publicly accuse the board of overreacting. Other critics complained that directors should not have let Hurd leave with a severance package worth $50 million or more in cash and stock options. Hurd later gave up some of those options after he went to work for rival tech company Oracle.

Representatives for HP and Hurd declined to comment Wednesday. But, according to a recent filing in San Jose federal court, Hurd's lawyer has complained that HP's attorneys are not giving him copies of documents they shared with attorneys for stockholders who are pursuing similar lawsuits in a Delaware court.

Hurd is a defendant in the San Jose federal case. Before endorsing HP's request for a postponement, Hurd's lawyer wants HP to provide him with the documents it turned over in Delaware, and with a more recent complaint from another, unidentified shareholder. That complaint is what prompted HP's proposal to review its handling of Hurd's departure.

HP used the services of an outside law firm to investigate Hurd's actions last summer. But court filings indicate the company is proposing a new review by presumably different lawyers and a committee of directors who were not on the board when Hurd was ousted.

Although the filing did not name the directors, the only two who have joined the board since August are Ray Lane, the board's nonexecutive chairman, and CEO Léo Apotheker, who was hired last fall to replace Hurd.

(NBC) - A new smart phone app is helping the color blind see things they have never laid eyes on before.

Before the app, dubbed the DanKam, Jeff Kramer was out of luck while getting dressed if his wife wasn't around to help him match colors. Now he can turn to his phone.

"We've got it down to a science where I'll be walking out and she'll say, 'Stop,' and she'll just go, 'No,'" Kramer said. "And then you know, back in."

The DanKam is an adjustable filter that the user can customize to compensate for his or her deficiency. DanKam is named for its developer, Dan Kaminsky.

An internet security expert by day, Kaminsky said he built the app to help a friend who was color blind, and is frankly shocked by how many people he has ended up helping.

"People are telling me they're in tears," Kaminsky said.

People that aren't color blind may wonder why you should care about an app like this, and the answer would be an example of the direction mobile technology is headed. What started out as a way to listen to music or play games is turning out to be more.

Radha Basu, of Santa Clara University's Center for Science, Technology and Society, said there are apps that can turn mobile phones into heart monitors, hearing aids and even help blind people navigate city streets.

"Problems of society that we never thought we could solve before are starting to get addressed," Basu said.

(NBC) - A new smart phone app is helping the color blind see things they have never laid eyes on before.

Before the app, dubbed the DanKam, Jeff Kramer was out of luck while getting dressed if his wife wasn't around to help him match colors. Now he can turn to his phone.

"We've got it down to a science where I'll be walking out and she'll say, 'Stop,' and she'll just go, 'No,'" Kramer said. "And then you know, back in."

The DanKam is an adjustable filter that the user can customize to compensate for his or her deficiency. DanKam is named for its developer, Dan Kaminsky.

An internet security expert by day, Kaminsky said he built the app to help a friend who was color blind, and is frankly shocked by how many people he has ended up helping.

"People are telling me they're in tears," Kaminsky said.

People that aren't color blind may wonder why you should care about an app like this, and the answer would be an example of the direction mobile technology is headed. What started out as a way to listen to music or play games is turning out to be more.

Radha Basu, of Santa Clara University's Center for Science, Technology and Society, said there are apps that can turn mobile phones into heart monitors, hearing aids and even help blind people navigate city streets.

"Problems of society that we never thought we could solve before are starting to get addressed," Basu said.

When burglary defendant Raymond Higgins testified that he had been distraught at the time of the alleged crime because of the death of a close friend, prosecutor Christopher Lawson asked him whether it wasn't "pretty pathetic if you're using the memory of a dead 17-year-old kid as an excuse."

After the judge ruled the question improper, Higgins said he'd also been feeling guilty about not attending the funeral of his sister, who had committed suicide. "You agree that's pretty despicable if you were using that as an excuse," Lawson told him.

According to a state appeals court in San Diego, the prosecutor also questioned the defense lawyer's integrity, suggested the attorney had coached Higgins, and described a defense psychiatrist as a hired gun who had "attacked a victim in a rape trial."

Lawson used his cross-examinations to make speeches and "engaged in a pattern of misconduct that rendered the trial fundamentally unfair," the Fourth District Court of Appeal said in a ruling Thursday that overturned Higgins' conviction and granted him a new trial. He has been serving a five-year prison sentence.

The ruling comes in the wake of a report in October by the Northern California Innocence Project at Santa Clara University asserting that prosecutors in the state are seldom punished for unethical courtroom conduct. The project said it found 707 cases from 1997 to 2009 in which courts had found misconduct by prosecutors, but only six prosecutors who were disciplined by the State Bar. The bar, in response, said it would take another look at some of those cases.

Lawson, a deputy district attorney in San Diego County, was unavailable for comment. Steve Walker, a spokesman for the office, said prosecutors were reviewing the ruling.

Higgins, a businessman and Naval Academy graduate with no previous criminal record, was charged with burglary and assault for breaking into a neighbor's house in San Diego with two handguns in May 2008.

The neighbor had asked Higgins to keep an eye on her teenage son, who had gotten in trouble, and Higgins said he had gone to her home to talk to her after seeing the youth hanging out with the wrong crowd. Higgins said he had been drinking heavily, had no recollection of breaking into the home and hadn't intended to hurt anyone with the gun he used to pry open a bedroom door.

When a defense psychiatrist testified that Higgins was suffering from alcoholism and depression, the prosecutor asked him about his previous testimony for a rape defendant -- questioning that the appeals court called "irrelevant and potentially inflammatory." Lawson later told the jury that the witness had been paid $7,000 to "come up with an excuse" for Higgins.

The prosecutor also said -- without evidence, according to the court -- that Higgins had been "coached ... trained" by his lawyer to put on "an act" on the witness stand.

The prosecutor's comments may have tipped the scales, the court said, noting that the jury at Higgins' first trial deadlocked and he was convicted in a retrial. Defense lawyer Charles Sevilla said he expects to get Higgins released on bail while awaiting another trial.

The ruling should encourage district attorneys' offices to "redouble their efforts at training," Sevilla said. "Trying a case is not the place to explore the outer limits of advocacy."

RADHA BASU IS WITH SANTA CLARA UNIVERSITY'S CENTER FOR SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND SOCIETY.01/20/201112 News First at 4 PM - WWBT-TV

MOST OF US DOWNLOAD APPS FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES AND TO PUT RESTAURANT REVIEWS OR SHOPPING DEALS AT OUR FINGERTIPS. BUT GARVIN THOMAS TELLS US THERE ARE OTHER APPS OUT THERE, ONES THAT CAN HELP CHANGE PEOPLE'S LIVES. GREEN-BROWN. WHAT IS THAT N LIKE MILLIONS OF OTHER AMERICANS, JEFF KRAMER IS COLOR BLIND. FORTUNATELY FOR HIM, THOUGH, WHEN IT COMES TO PICKING OUT HIS CLOTHES, HIS WIFE IS MORE THAN WILLING TO HELP HIM OUT. WE'VE GOT IT DOWN TO A SCIENCE WHERE I'LL BE WALKING OUT AND SHE'LL SAY, "STOP, " AND SHE'LL JUST GO, "NO, " AND THEN, YOU KNOW, BACK IN. BUT NOW WHEN SHE'S NOT AVAILABLE, THERE IS SOMEONE OR SOME THING ELSE KRAMER CAN TURN TO, HIS PHONE. A NEW SMARTPHONE APP JUST RELEASED THAT HELPS COLOR BLIND PEOPLE SEE WHAT THEY'VE BEEN MISSING. ALL RIGHT. NOW I CAN REALLY KNOW THAT REALLY JUMPS OUT. THE DANKAM IS AN ADJUSTABLE FILTER THAT THE USER CAN CUSTOMIZE TO COMPENSATE FOR HIS OR HER DEFICIENCY. IF YOU'RE COLOR BLIND, YOU REALLY JUST CANNOT TELL THAT RED FROM THAT GREEN. DANKAM IS NAMED FOR ITS DEVELOPER, DAN KAMINSKY. AN INTERNET SECURITY EXPERT BY DAY, KAMINSKY SAID HE BUILT THE APP TO HELP A FRIEND WHO IS COLOR BLIND AND IS FRANKLY SHOCKED BY JUST HOW MANY PEOPLE HE HAS ENDED UP HELPING. PEOPLE ARE TELLING ME THEY'RE IN TEARS. NOW, IF YOU'RE NOT COLORBLIND, YOU MAY BE WONDERING WHY YOU SHOULD CARE ABOUT AN APP LIKE THIS. WELL, BECAUSE IT'S AN EXAMPLE OF WHERE MOBILE TECHNOLOGY IS HEADING. WHAT STARTED OUT AS A WAY TO LISTEN TO MUSIC OR PLAY GAMES IS TURNING OUT TO BE SO MUCH MORE AND WE'RE JUST AT THE BEGINNING OF THE REVOLUTION. MOBILE DEVICES SOLVING PROBLEMS IN WAYS WE COULD NEVER EVEN THINK OF DOING BEFORE. RADHA BASU IS WITH SANTA CLARA UNIVERSITY'S CENTER FOR SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND SOCIETY. SHE POINTS TO APPS THAT TURN MOBILE PHONES INTO MICROSCOPES, HEART MONITORS, HEARING AIDS, EVEN ONES THAT HELP BLIND PEOPLE NAVIGATE CITY STREETS. TRULY LIFE-CHANGING, PERHAPS LIFE-SAVING APPLICATIONS. PROBLEMS OF SOCIETY THAT WE NEVER THOUGHT WE COULD SOLVE BEFORE THAT ARE STARTING TO GET ADDRESSED. AND "STARTING, " BASU SAYS, IS THE KEY WORD. IT'S JUST A MATTER OF TIME BEFORE TECHNOLOGY HELPS ALL OF US SEE THE WORLD AROUND US A LITTLE DIFFERENTLY.

As dawn awakened a drowsy Stanford campus, eight sweaty students were cooling down from a rigorous Wednesday workout, savoring the camaraderie before disbanding for distant commutes -- to Santa Clara, San Jose and Berkeley.

Since the Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) ended at Stanford in 1973, students in the military program have had to travel to other schools to get their military training, squeezing in classes in Navigation or Leadership Training alongside calculus, literature and other courses that comprise a well-rounded liberal arts education.

But a renewal of ROTC at Stanford and other elite universities is now under consideration, suggesting a reconciliation of two cultures that had grown far apart.

ROTC was booted off Stanford's campus because of deep anti-war sentiments, weak military-based courses and the discrimination against gays long practiced by the armed forces. But memories of the Vietnam War are fading. The trauma of Sept. 11 has renewed patriotism among youth. And, most recently, the military's anti-gay "don't ask, don't tell" has been repealed.

Meanwhile, the military wants to significantly expand the number of ROTC programs on college campuses, its supply of officers stretched thin by simultaneous wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

miles to Santa Clara University, where they lead the Army's Bronco Battalion. Other students attend San Jose State for Air Force training and UC Berkeley for Navy and Marines training.

"Sometimes it feels like we spend more time there, than here," said Ruck, who wants to be a military intelligence officer. "Stanford and the military are missing out on an exchange of ideas that go both ways."

Added Ennis, 22, who plans to join the infantry: "We don't get to do some Stanford activities. "... And we don't get much sleep."

Although the two institutions embrace very different cultures and protocols, for decades ROTC programs were an easy fit on campuses across the nation. They offer military coursework and physical drills, monthly stipends and scholarship money. Upon graduation, they guarantee a job. Equipped with a four-year degree and officer training, ROTC graduates enter the military several notches ahead of enlisted men and women.

But in 1968, amid anger among the student body over the military's invasion of Cambodia, arsonists attacked Stanford's ROTC building, burning it to the ground. The program was entirely jettisoned, after great debate, five years later.

The decision to allow ROTC to return to Stanford rests with the faculty because only professors can evaluate the rigor of the curriculum. Over the past two weeks, the faculty senate's committee on ROTC has sponsored meetings for students and faculty, and is scheduled to make a recommendation in May.

Similar debates are under way at Harvard, Yale and Columbia.

"The repeal of 'don't ask, don't tell' took one thing off the table," said Ewart Thomas, a psychology professor who heads the committee. "Now, the hard thing is to conceive of what the program would look like, to make it consistent with the academic standards of the university."

But major, perhaps insurmountable, obstacles remain.

Opponents of ROTC are passionate and argue that Stanford still has strong moral and educational reasons for keeping the military off campus, regardless of the repeal of "don't ask, don't tell."

ROTC's warrior ethic has no role on a liberal arts campus, say students with the group Stanford Says No To War.

ROTC is no different from any other employer and deserves no special status, added law student Sam Windley, president of the group. "ROTC is an occupational decision. Stanford's students do not have convenient access to every occupational opportunity, and it would be impossible for the university to make it so."

Others note that it still violates colleges' nondiscrimination policies because the military bans transsexuals. "It is antithetical to Stanford's nondiscrimination clause," said Alok Vaid-Menon, president of Stanford Students for Queer Liberation.

Faculty disapprove of some ROTC programs that require cadets and midshipmen to enter the university with a predetermined major -- a policy that conflicts with Stanford's emphasis on academic exploration.

And they worry about students who receive ROTC scholarships, then change their mind and are penalized -- a policy that one professor called "financial coercion."

History professor Bart Bernstein, who helped lead the movement against ROTC 40 years ago, disapproved of ROTC for several additional reasons. "It requires that the faculty be appointed by the Pentagon, not by the university. Secondly, the course content ... is not as rigorous, not as demanding, not as deep and does not require the same level of analysis."

Bernstein's third objection: "Students in ROTC courses are not as intellectually free as they are in Stanford courses -- for instance, they are not allowed to criticize the president of the U.S., foreign policy and military action."

"One can accept and endorse the military," said Bernstein, who joined ROTC as a teenager, "and still believe ROTC is inappropriate and propose that officers be recruited and trained in other ways."

But ROTC supporters say elite universities like Stanford have gone AWOL when it comes to military service. Stanford students have been spared the grievous cost of combat, and are disconnected from the realities of service. Tomorrow's leaders should understand the burden of national defense, they argue.

In early March, professors William Perry, the former U.S. secretary of defense, and Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David Kennedy made a stirring case to return ROTC.

"We are in danger of seriously compromising a 200-year-old tradition of the citizen soldier," warned Kennedy, describing the emergence of a "military caste" unfamiliar to the civilian public.

Although Stanford has not yet decided what formal recognition would entail, it could mean that the university creates a space for ROTC students and veterans to gather, opens ROTC classes to traditional students, allows recruitment and promotes the military as a legitimate career option for its graduates. Academic credit for classes would be decided on an individual basis.

The final decision will need to balance many competing priorities, Thomas said.

"If the university is not ready to make a change, so be it. At least we'll be able to say 'This is what it could look like.' "

This woman is with Santa Clara University's Center for science, technology, and society.01/20/2011KSL 5 News at Noon - KSL-TV

[ Pop ] right now at H&R Block, You could get money. And You could get it fast. Just bring In your tax information And get a refund anticipation check for up to $9,999. You pay nothing out of pocket To get the maximum refund guaranteed. Never settle for less than fast. Call 1-800-hrblock Or visit hrblock. Com to make an appointment. H&R Block. Never settle for less. [ Continues ] Facebook saved a man's Life In Washington state. Bob Chambers is confined to a wheelchair and he was home alone when his toaster caught on fire. Luckily on loon. I was on line playing one of the games through Facebook, and I just started typing, this is not a joke, I need help, there's a fire In the kitchen, can someone please call the fire department and I put my address, and all that, on the Internet someone playing the game with him did call for help, Mr. Police were able to reach Chambers and put out the fire before it caused serious damage or injury. Chambers suffered some smoke inhalation but he is expected to be okay. Wow most of us have down loaded apps from the Internet for entertainment purposes. But some apps are starting to change the with people view the world entirely. Green-Brown. What does that sneen. Like millions of other Americans Jeff Kramer is color blind. Fortunately foo him, though, when it comes to picking out his clothes his wife is more than willing to help him out we've got it down to a science where I'll be walking out and she'll say stop, just go, no, and then back? But now, when she's not available, there is someone or something else Kramer can turn to, his phone. A new smart phone app just released that helps color blind people see what they've been be missing right now I can really, now that really jumps out. The Dan cam is an adjustable filter that a user can customize to xen Salt for his or her deficiency. If You're color blind You really cannot tell that Red from that green. Dan chem is named for its developers. He says he built the app to help a friend who is color blind and is frankly shocked by just how many people he ended up helping people are telling me they're In tears. And now if You're not color blind You may be wondering why You should care about an app like this. Well, because it's an example of where mobile technology is heading. What started out as a way to listen to music or play games is turning out to be so much more, and we're just at the beginning of the revolution the mobile device is solving problems In a way we could never think of doing before. This woman is with Santa Clara University's Center for science, technology, and society. She points to apps that turn mobile phones into microscopes, heart monitors, hearing AIDS, even ones that help blind people navigate City streets. Truly Life changing, perhaps Life saving applications problems of society that we never thought we could solve before that are starting to get addressed. And starting, she says, is the key word. It's just a matter of time before technology helps all of us see the world around us a little differently. Garmin Thomas reporting. That's fascinating to see what's coming out. Every day there's something new. And so many helpful things for people. Like the KSL weather app like the live 5 KSL weather app. Is there a birthday cake app we could play right now In. I bet there is. For the birthday boy over here? Like I mentioned before at this point, at this stage, just Don'T want to think about them. Just Don'T- -it's not like it was 20 years ago just have fun. Okay, all right, maybe a little birthday cake later, not bad. Or how about a Trip to Lake Powell at dangling rope Marina? Not bad place to be, there's an empty slot right there, a couple of looks like it's a little breezy by the Lake.

Applications are now being accepted for Class 42 of the California Agricultural Leadership Program (CALP). Growers, farmers, ranchers and individuals working in allied businesses and organizationsare encouraged to apply.

Applications are now being accepted for Class 42 of the California Agricultural Leadership Program (CALP). Growers, farmers, ranchers and individuals working in allied businesses and organizationsare encouraged to apply.

CALP is operated by the California Agricultural Leadership Foundation (CALF). For more than 40 years, CALP has provided an advanced leadership development experience for emerging agricultural leaders. During an intensive 20-month program, fellows are immersed in topics including leadership theory, strategic thinking, strategic agility, effective communication, personality traits, theories of motivation, critical thinking skills, complex social and cultural issues, and change management. Fellows are exposed to dynamic classroom presentations, experiential learning opportunities and selected readings. CALF invests approximately $45,000 per fellow to participate in the program. The cost of the program is underwritten by individual and industry donations.

Seminars are delivered by four partner universities – Cal Poly, Pomona; Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo; CSU Fresno; and UC Davis. Additional segments are provided by Santa Clara University and National Defense University's Industrial College in Washington, D.C. Fellows participate in a 10-day national travel/learning seminar and a 15-day international travel/learning seminar.

“There is a tremendous need for individuals who can provide strong and effective leadership for their businesses in our dynamic and complex agriculture industry, as well as our communities, our state and our nation,” said CALF President and CEO Bob Gray. “Ag Leadership fellows acquire the tools to enhance their leadership skills and contribute to their – and their organizations' – long-term success.”

Since it was first delivered in 1970, more than 1,100 men and women have participated in the Ag Leadership Program and have become influential leaders and active volunteers in the agriculture industry, government, communities, business and education.

Candidates interested in applying can download the application and required forms at www.agleaders.org. The deadline for applications is May 16. A new, three-phase application process has been implemented this year. The first phase is brief written application to determine a candidate's eligibility for the program. The second phase requires a more detailed written application from a candidate. The final phase is a face-to-face interview with a screening committee.

Emory officials announced that Napolitano would speak at the university's May 9 commencement ceremony. Napolitano, a former Arizona governor, was named the country's third homeland security secretary by President Barack Obama in 2009.

Emory University is a private college in Atlanta.

Napolitano was the first female valedictorian at Santa Clara University. She went on to graduate from the University of Virginia's law school.

The company that uses neural networks to analyze your building wants to colonize 150 million square feet of office space this year.

Scientific Conservation, the Sigmund Freud of green buildings, raised a second round today to kick off a year the company expects to be a big one.

The Westly Group and Draper Fisher Jurvetson plunked $15.65 million more into the company, bringing the total raised to nearly $25 million. The company has created software that figures out what is wrong with your office building by looking at data from thermostats, air conditioners, carbon monoxide sensors, the building management system and other sources. It then sends out commands to adjust thermostats or replace compressors or other devices on the verge of failure. The more data the better. The underlying algorithms exploit neural networks and diagnostic techniques developed in part during the development of the Space Shuttle. (Kids: that was a reusable spacecraft that came out around the same time as the table top version of Donkey Kong.)

While Scientific Conservation will analyze your building's problems, it won't fix them. It won't even actively turn down the lights or HVAC system. It leaves that job to the maintenance staff and building management system. Still, remote, automated analysis can save quite a bit of money. Right now, companies often have to hire consultants to get the same results, and the process can take weeks. CEO Russ McMeekin analogizes his company's software to TurboTax. It might not provide the same exact, answer as a professional accountant, but 90 percent of the time the answer will be nearly the same and the cost spent on third party help will be a lot less.

Back in November, McMeekin told us Scientific's software already actively analyzed 15 million square feet of commercial real estate. The goal for 2011, he added, was to colonize 100 to 150 mllion square feet. The massive growth spurt springs from two sources. First, the company is racking up deals with large customers like General Electric, Boeing and Neiman Marcus. General Electric alone has 32,000 different facilities. Scientific Conservation may not find its way into all of them, but even a portion would represent a lot of real estate.

Other companies -- EnerNoc, Serious Materials, BuildingIQ, Cimentrics, Redwood Systems, General Telemetry -- note that their management services provide automated, continuous responses similar to what Scientific promises. (If we had a live lab, we'd test them all out). All of these competitors also say that they will increasingly provide automated control over appliances like air conditioners or lights, a function Scientific is punting on for now. All of these systems will utlimately get plugged into demand response networks too, so companies like Constellation, EnerNoc and Comverge can parlay their existing account base to gain market share.

"We are hands-down the largest provider of what you would call persistent or monitoring-based commissioning. We've got 100 massive customers. We've got the California State University System [...]; we've got Boeing," EnerNoc's Gregg Dixon told us last year. Serious, through its acquisition of Valence Energy, claims Santa Clara University as a customer. Hara has landed a contract with the Masdar Foundation to control buildings in Abu Dhabi, but Masdar plans shift continually.

Who will win? It's hard to say. Performance data from the field and word-of-mouth from facilities managers will likely play a huge part in this market.

Stanford ponders the return of ROTC after nearly four decades01/19/2011Daily Review, The

As dawn awakened a drowsy Stanford campus, eight sweaty students were cooling down from a rigorous Wednesday workout, savoring the camaraderie before disbanding for distant commutes -- to Santa Clara, San Jose and Berkeley.

Since the Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) ended at Stanford in 1973, students in the military program have had to travel to other schools to get their military training, squeezing in classes in Navigation or Leadership Training alongside calculus, literature and other courses that comprise a well-rounded liberal arts education.

But a renewal of ROTC at Stanford and other elite universities is now under consideration, suggesting a reconciliation of two cultures that had grown far apart.

ROTC was booted off Stanford's campus because of deep anti-war sentiments, weak military-based courses and the discrimination against gays long practiced by the armed forces. But memories of the Vietnam War are fading. The trauma of Sept. 11 has renewed patriotism among youth. And, most recently, the anti-gay Don't Ask, Don't Tell has been repealed.

Meanwhile, the military wants to significantly expand the number of ROTC programs on college campuses, its supply of officers stretched thin by simultaneous wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

"It would really help," says Jimmy Ruck, 21, a Stanford senior who wakes twice a week at 5:20 a.m., meets fellow cadet Oliver Ennis, borrows a campus Zipcar and drives 20 miles to Santa Clara University, where they lead the Army's Bronco Battalion. Other students attend San Jose State for Air Force training and UC Berkeley for Navy and Marines training.

"Sometimes it feels like we spend more time there, than here," said Ruck, who wants to be a military intelligence officer. "Stanford and the military are missing out on an exchange of ideas that go both ways."

Added Ennis, 22, who plans to join the infantry: "We don't get to do some Stanford activities. "... And we don't get much sleep."

Guaranteed job

Although the two institutions embrace very different cultures and protocols, for decades ROTC programs were an easy fit on campuses across the nation. They offer military coursework and physical drills, monthly stipends and scholarship money. Upon graduation, they guarantee a job. Equipped with a four-year degree and officer training, ROTC graduates enter the military several notches ahead of enlisted men and women.

But in 1968, amid anger among the student body over the military's invasion of Cambodia, arsonists attacked Stanford's ROTC building, burning it to the ground. The program was entirely jettisoned, after great debate, five years later.

The decision to allow ROTC to return to Stanford rests with the faculty because only professors can evaluate the rigor of the curriculum. Over the past two weeks, the faculty senate's committee on ROTC has sponsored meetings for students and faculty, and is scheduled to make a recommendation in May.

Similar debates are under way at Harvard, Yale and Columbia.

"The repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell took one thing off the table," said Ewart Thomas, a psychology professor who heads the committee. "Now, the hard thing is to conceive of what the program would look like, to make it consistent with the academic standards of the university."

But major, perhaps insurmountable, obstacles remain.

Opponents of ROTC are passionate and argue that Stanford still has strong moral and educational reasons for keeping the military off campus, regardless of the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell.

ROTC's warrior ethic has no role on a liberal arts campus, say students with the group Stanford Says No To War.

ROTC is no different from any other employer and deserves no special status, added law student Sam Windley, president of the group. "ROTC is an occupational decision. Stanford's students do not have convenient access to every occupational opportunity, and it would be impossible for the university to make it so."

Others note that it still violates colleges' nondiscrimination policies because the military bans transsexuals. "It is antithetical to Stanford's nondiscrimination clause," said Alok Vaid-Menon, president of Stanford Students for Queer Liberation.

Military strictures

Faculty disapprove of some ROTC programs that require cadets and midshipmen to enter the university with a predetermined major -- a policy that conflicts with Stanford's emphasis on academic exploration.

And they worry about students who receive ROTC scholarships, then change their mind and are penalized -- a policy that one professor called "financial coercion."

History professor Bart Bernstein, who helped lead the movement against ROTC 40 years ago, disapproved of ROTC for several additional reasons. "It requires that the faculty be appointed by the Pentagon, not by the university. Secondly, the course content ... is not as rigorous, not as demanding, not as deep and does not require the same level of analysis."

Bernstein's third objection: "Students in ROTC courses are not as intellectually free as they are in Stanford courses -- for instance, they are not allowed to criticize the president of the U.S., foreign policy and military action."

"One can accept and endorse the military," said Bernstein, who joined ROTC as a teenager, "and still believe ROTC is inappropriate and propose that officers be recruited and trained in other ways."

But ROTC supporters say elite universities like Stanford have gone AWOL when it comes to military service. Stanford students have been spared the grievous cost of combat, and are disconnected from the realities of service. Tomorrow's leaders should understand the burden of national defense, they argue.

In early March, professors William Perry, the former U.S. secretary of defense, and Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David Kennedy made a stirring case to return ROTC.

"We are in danger of seriously compromising a 200-year-old tradition of the citizen soldier," warned Kennedy, describing the emergence of a "military caste" unfamiliar to the civilian public.

Although Stanford has not yet decided what formal recognition would entail, it could mean that the university creates a space for ROTC students and veterans to gather, opens ROTC classes to traditional students, allows recruitment and promotes the military as a legitimate career option for its graduates. Academic credit for classes would be decided on an individual basis.

The final decision will need to balance many competing priorities, Thomas said.

"If the university is not ready to make a change, so be it. At least we'll be able to say 'This is what it could look like.' "

Contact Lisa M. Krieger at 408-920-5565.

ROTC AT A GLANCE

ROTC is hosted at 327 schools, including Cornell University, Duke University, Princeton University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

ROTC is off-campus at about 1,800 schools, including Harvard, Dartmouth, Yale, University of Pennsylvania, Brown and Stanford.

WHAT'S NEXT

The faculty senate will recommend in May whether the rigor of ROTC's curriculum meets university standards. But for some students and faculty, other objections remain.

Stanford ponders the return of ROTC after nearly four decades01/19/2011Argus, The

As dawn awakened a drowsy Stanford campus, eight sweaty students were cooling down from a rigorous Wednesday workout, savoring the camaraderie before disbanding for distant commutes -- to Santa Clara, San Jose and Berkeley.

Since the Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) ended at Stanford in 1973, students in the military program have had to travel to other schools to get their military training, squeezing in classes in Navigation or Leadership Training alongside calculus, literature and other courses that comprise a well-rounded liberal arts education.

But a renewal of ROTC at Stanford and other elite universities is now under consideration, suggesting a reconciliation of two cultures that had grown far apart.

ROTC was booted off Stanford's campus because of deep anti-war sentiments, weak military-based courses and the discrimination against gays long practiced by the armed forces. But memories of the Vietnam War are fading. The trauma of Sept. 11 has renewed patriotism among youth. And, most recently, the anti-gay Don't Ask, Don't Tell has been repealed.

Meanwhile, the military wants to significantly expand the number of ROTC programs on college campuses, its supply of officers stretched thin by simultaneous wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

"It would really help," says Jimmy Ruck, 21, a Stanford senior who wakes twice a week at 5:20 a.m., meets fellow cadet Oliver Ennis, borrows a campus Zipcar and drives 20 miles to Santa Clara University, where they lead the Army's Bronco Battalion. Other students attend San Jose State for Air Force training and UC Berkeley for Navy and Marines training.

"Sometimes it feels like we spend more time there, than here," said Ruck, who wants to be a military intelligence officer. "Stanford and the military are missing out on an exchange of ideas that go both ways."

Added Ennis, 22, who plans to join the infantry: "We don't get to do some Stanford activities. "... And we don't get much sleep."

Guaranteed job

Although the two institutions embrace very different cultures and protocols, for decades ROTC programs were an easy fit on campuses across the nation. They offer military coursework and physical drills, monthly stipends and scholarship money. Upon graduation, they guarantee a job. Equipped with a four-year degree and officer training, ROTC graduates enter the military several notches ahead of enlisted men and women.

But in 1968, amid anger among the student body over the military's invasion of Cambodia, arsonists attacked Stanford's ROTC building, burning it to the ground. The program was entirely jettisoned, after great debate, five years later.

The decision to allow ROTC to return to Stanford rests with the faculty because only professors can evaluate the rigor of the curriculum. Over the past two weeks, the faculty senate's committee on ROTC has sponsored meetings for students and faculty, and is scheduled to make a recommendation in May.

Similar debates are under way at Harvard, Yale and Columbia.

"The repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell took one thing off the table," said Ewart Thomas, a psychology professor who heads the committee. "Now, the hard thing is to conceive of what the program would look like, to make it consistent with the academic standards of the university."

But major, perhaps insurmountable, obstacles remain.

Opponents of ROTC are passionate and argue that Stanford still has strong moral and educational reasons for keeping the military off campus, regardless of the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell.

ROTC's warrior ethic has no role on a liberal arts campus, say students with the group Stanford Says No To War.

ROTC is no different from any other employer and deserves no special status, added law student Sam Windley, president of the group. "ROTC is an occupational decision. Stanford's students do not have convenient access to every occupational opportunity, and it would be impossible for the university to make it so."

Others note that it still violates colleges' nondiscrimination policies because the military bans transsexuals. "It is antithetical to Stanford's nondiscrimination clause," said Alok Vaid-Menon, president of Stanford Students for Queer Liberation.

Military strictures

Faculty disapprove of some ROTC programs that require cadets and midshipmen to enter the university with a predetermined major -- a policy that conflicts with Stanford's emphasis on academic exploration.

And they worry about students who receive ROTC scholarships, then change their mind and are penalized -- a policy that one professor called "financial coercion."

History professor Bart Bernstein, who helped lead the movement against ROTC 40 years ago, disapproved of ROTC for several additional reasons. "It requires that the faculty be appointed by the Pentagon, not by the university. Secondly, the course content ... is not as rigorous, not as demanding, not as deep and does not require the same level of analysis."

Bernstein's third objection: "Students in ROTC courses are not as intellectually free as they are in Stanford courses -- for instance, they are not allowed to criticize the president of the U.S., foreign policy and military action."

"One can accept and endorse the military," said Bernstein, who joined ROTC as a teenager, "and still believe ROTC is inappropriate and propose that officers be recruited and trained in other ways."

But ROTC supporters say elite universities like Stanford have gone AWOL when it comes to military service. Stanford students have been spared the grievous cost of combat, and are disconnected from the realities of service. Tomorrow's leaders should understand the burden of national defense, they argue.

In early March, professors William Perry, the former U.S. secretary of defense, and Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David Kennedy made a stirring case to return ROTC.

"We are in danger of seriously compromising a 200-year-old tradition of the citizen soldier," warned Kennedy, describing the emergence of a "military caste" unfamiliar to the civilian public.

Although Stanford has not yet decided what formal recognition would entail, it could mean that the university creates a space for ROTC students and veterans to gather, opens ROTC classes to traditional students, allows recruitment and promotes the military as a legitimate career option for its graduates. Academic credit for classes would be decided on an individual basis.

The final decision will need to balance many competing priorities, Thomas said.

"If the university is not ready to make a change, so be it. At least we'll be able to say 'This is what it could look like.' "

Contact Lisa M. Krieger at 408-920-5565.

ROTC AT A GLANCE

ROTC is hosted at 327 schools, including Cornell University, Duke University, Princeton University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

ROTC is off-campus at about 1,800 schools, including Harvard, Dartmouth, Yale, University of Pennsylvania, Brown and Stanford.

WHAT'S NEXT

The faculty senate will recommend in May whether the rigor of ROTC's curriculum meets university standards. But for some students and faculty, other objections remain.

Stanford ponders the return of ROTC after nearly four decades01/19/2011Alameda Times-Star

As dawn awakened a drowsy Stanford campus, eight sweaty students were cooling down from a rigorous Wednesday workout, savoring the camaraderie before disbanding for distant commutes -- to Santa Clara, San Jose and Berkeley.

Since the Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) ended at Stanford in 1973, students in the military program have had to travel to other schools to get their military training, squeezing in classes in Navigation or Leadership Training alongside calculus, literature and other courses that comprise a well-rounded liberal arts education.

But a renewal of ROTC at Stanford and other elite universities is now under consideration, suggesting a reconciliation of two cultures that had grown far apart.

ROTC was booted off Stanford's campus because of deep anti-war sentiments, weak military-based courses and the discrimination against gays long practiced by the armed forces. But memories of the Vietnam War are fading. The trauma of Sept. 11 has renewed patriotism among youth. And, most recently, the anti-gay Don't Ask, Don't Tell has been repealed.

Meanwhile, the military wants to significantly expand the number of ROTC programs on college campuses, its supply of officers stretched thin by simultaneous wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

"It would really help," says Jimmy Ruck, 21, a Stanford senior who wakes twice a week at 5:20 a.m., meets fellow cadet Oliver Ennis, borrows a campus Zipcar and drives 20 miles to Santa Clara University, where they lead the Army's Bronco Battalion. Other students attend San Jose State for Air Force training and UC Berkeley for Navy and Marines training.

"Sometimes it feels like we spend more time there, than here," said Ruck, who wants to be a military intelligence officer. "Stanford and the military are missing out on an exchange of ideas that go both ways."

Added Ennis, 22, who plans to join the infantry: "We don't get to do some Stanford activities. "... And we don't get much sleep."

Guaranteed job

Although the two institutions embrace very different cultures and protocols, for decades ROTC programs were an easy fit on campuses across the nation. They offer military coursework and physical drills, monthly stipends and scholarship money. Upon graduation, they guarantee a job. Equipped with a four-year degree and officer training, ROTC graduates enter the military several notches ahead of enlisted men and women.

But in 1968, amid anger among the student body over the military's invasion of Cambodia, arsonists attacked Stanford's ROTC building, burning it to the ground. The program was entirely jettisoned, after great debate, five years later.

The decision to allow ROTC to return to Stanford rests with the faculty because only professors can evaluate the rigor of the curriculum. Over the past two weeks, the faculty senate's committee on ROTC has sponsored meetings for students and faculty, and is scheduled to make a recommendation in May.

Similar debates are under way at Harvard, Yale and Columbia.

"The repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell took one thing off the table," said Ewart Thomas, a psychology professor who heads the committee. "Now, the hard thing is to conceive of what the program would look like, to make it consistent with the academic standards of the university."

But major, perhaps insurmountable, obstacles remain.

Opponents of ROTC are passionate and argue that Stanford still has strong moral and educational reasons for keeping the military off campus, regardless of the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell.

ROTC's warrior ethic has no role on a liberal arts campus, say students with the group Stanford Says No To War.

ROTC is no different from any other employer and deserves no special status, added law student Sam Windley, president of the group. "ROTC is an occupational decision. Stanford's students do not have convenient access to every occupational opportunity, and it would be impossible for the university to make it so."

Others note that it still violates colleges' nondiscrimination policies because the military bans transsexuals. "It is antithetical to Stanford's nondiscrimination clause," said Alok Vaid-Menon, president of Stanford Students for Queer Liberation.

Military strictures

Faculty disapprove of some ROTC programs that require cadets and midshipmen to enter the university with a predetermined major -- a policy that conflicts with Stanford's emphasis on academic exploration.

And they worry about students who receive ROTC scholarships, then change their mind and are penalized -- a policy that one professor called "financial coercion."

History professor Bart Bernstein, who helped lead the movement against ROTC 40 years ago, disapproved of ROTC for several additional reasons. "It requires that the faculty be appointed by the Pentagon, not by the university. Secondly, the course content ... is not as rigorous, not as demanding, not as deep and does not require the same level of analysis."

Bernstein's third objection: "Students in ROTC courses are not as intellectually free as they are in Stanford courses -- for instance, they are not allowed to criticize the president of the U.S., foreign policy and military action."

"One can accept and endorse the military," said Bernstein, who joined ROTC as a teenager, "and still believe ROTC is inappropriate and propose that officers be recruited and trained in other ways."

But ROTC supporters say elite universities like Stanford have gone AWOL when it comes to military service. Stanford students have been spared the grievous cost of combat, and are disconnected from the realities of service. Tomorrow's leaders should understand the burden of national defense, they argue.

In early March, professors William Perry, the former U.S. secretary of defense, and Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David Kennedy made a stirring case to return ROTC.

"We are in danger of seriously compromising a 200-year-old tradition of the citizen soldier," warned Kennedy, describing the emergence of a "military caste" unfamiliar to the civilian public.

Although Stanford has not yet decided what formal recognition would entail, it could mean that the university creates a space for ROTC students and veterans to gather, opens ROTC classes to traditional students, allows recruitment and promotes the military as a legitimate career option for its graduates. Academic credit for classes would be decided on an individual basis.

The final decision will need to balance many competing priorities, Thomas said.

"If the university is not ready to make a change, so be it. At least we'll be able to say 'This is what it could look like.' "

Contact Lisa M. Krieger at 408-920-5565.

ROTC AT A GLANCE

ROTC is hosted at 327 schools, including Cornell University, Duke University, Princeton University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

ROTC is off-campus at about 1,800 schools, including Harvard, Dartmouth, Yale, University of Pennsylvania, Brown and Stanford.

WHAT'S NEXT

The faculty senate will recommend in May whether the rigor of ROTC's curriculum meets university standards. But for some students and faculty, other objections remain.

Will LSAT Be Optional To Get Into Law School? | View Clip01/19/2011FindLaw: for Corporate Counsel

Is cramming for the LSAT going to be a thing of the past for undergraduates aspiring to get into law school? While that may seem like an applicant's dream scenario, it just may become a reality.

The American Bar Association is considering a proposal to drop the LSAT requirement for admission into accredited law schools, the ABA Journal reports. As of now, accredited law schools are required to ask applicants for results of a "valid and reliable admission test." If the ABA drops this requirement, Dean Polden from Santa Clara University Law School still believes that most law schools will still require the admissions text because it will be another way to work through applications. So it looks like future law students may still need to study and take the LSAT even if it is not required.

An American Bar Association panel reviewing law school accreditation rules is leaning toward recommending an end to a requirement that law schools use the Law School Admissions Test.

If the panel follows through on its current inclinations -- and the ABA approves the changes -- law schools could gain flexibility they now lack to make the LSAT optional or drop the test. Whether they would do so remains to be seen, but many undergraduate colleges have made the SAT and ACT optional in recent years and generally have found that such shifts attract more applicants and a more diverse applicant pool without leading to any loss in academic performance.

Donald J. Polden, dean of the law school at Santa Clara University and chair of the ABA committee studying the standards, said that in two preliminary discussions of the issue, a "substantial majority" of committee members indicated that they would like to drop the LSAT requirement. (He confirmed a report on the likely shift in requirements, first published by The National Law Journal.)

Polden said via e-mail that there are "good arguments" for dropping the LSAT as an accreditation requirement. He said such a move would provide "greater flexibility for schools to achieve diversity goals in their admitted classes, permitting schools to experiment with admission programs that benefit the school without being penalized by U.S. News ranking changes attributable to those programs, following some of the thinking of undergraduate institutions on optional standardized entrance exams." was highly critical of the way many law schools are obsessed with high LSAT averages, which lead to higher rankings from U.S. News & World Report, and said that the link between test scores and rankings was discouraging efforts to promote diversity among law students.

Still, Polden said he wasn't endorsing the shift and didn't expect his law school to change its admissions policy if the ABA changes its rules. He said that there are still a number of "unresolved questions" about how law schools would report data on their applicants and enrolled students in an LSAT-optional era. For example, he said he wasn't sure how law schools would report on classes in which some applicants submitted scores and others did not, or whether policies would govern whether law schools could require the test of some but not all applicants.

A spokeswoman for the Law School Admission Council, which runs the LSAT, said that the organization was not commenting until the ABA issues a final recommendation.

Robert Schaeffer, public education director of the National Center for Fair & Open Testing, said that a switch in the ABA's policy would be "a significant step toward correcting the overuse of standardized testing in the law school admissions process." But he said that the "real hurdle" would be getting law schools to end their LSAT requirements or, if keeping the requirement, to "reduce their emphasis" on the exam.Schaeffer said that a shift by the ABA "would be a victory" for the Massachusetts School of Law, which "fought against the ABA's arbitrary rule that they require standardized exam scores even if such a policy conflicts with the school's mission."The refusal of the Massachusetts School of Law to require the LSAT was among several disputes that led to years of fighting with the ABA over its refusal to accredit the nontraditional law school. The ABA won the court battle, and the Massachusetts School of Law opted to operate without ABA recognition or an LSAT requirement. The Massachusetts School of Law and argues that its method helps to identify talented students who might not have earned great LSAT scores.

Lawrence R. Velvel, dean of the school, said via e-mail Thursday that even if the ABA changes its policies, his institution won't seek its accreditation. "We want nothing to do with such accreditation because we found out that it was -- and remains -- elitist, plays a major role in causing ABA tuitions to be over two or three times higher than ours, pays vastly insufficient attention to practical subjects, and goes far to reading the poor and the lower middle class out of law schools and the legal profession."

COLLEGE: Can students learn as well on iPads, e-books? | View Clip01/18/2011USA Today - Online

Can college students learn as well on iPads, e-books?

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Folu Ani, a graduate of San Diego State University and a member of the Class of 2014 at University of California-Irvine School of Medicine, holds an iPad. Given to each member of the class, the iPads came pre-loaded with all the textbooks and software required to complete their first year of medical school.

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More on higher education: USA TODAY's Mary Beth Marklein offers insight on college admissions, classes and trends, and she wants to hear from you

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By Mary Beth Marklein, USA TODAY

Oklahoma State University professor Bill Handy has big plans for the Apple iPad this fall. If the text messages he has received since the school announced he would test the tablet-style e-reader in some courses are any indication, students are eager to get their hands on the devices, too.

Handy, who teaches in the School of Media and Strategic Communications, is quick to stress that his intent is not to celebrate the new technology so much as to evaluate its effectiveness in the classroom.

"This is not research to prove that the iPad is great," he says. "There's a lot riding on what direction the university might take. If it's not beneficial, (I'll be) glad we figured that out early in the game."

Compared with traditional textbooks, the iPad and other devices for reading digital bookshave the potential to save on textbook costs in the long term, to provide students with more and better information faster, and — no small matter — to lighten the typical college student's backpack.

COLLEGE BLOG: Does technology change what we value in education?

TEXTBOOKS: E-books, new law may save college students cash

Yet the track record on campus so far for e-readers has been bumpy. Early trials of the Kindle DX, for example, drewcomplaints from students about clunky highlighting of text and slow refresh rates. Princeton and George Washington universities this spring found the iPad caused network problems. Federal officials in June cautioned colleges to hold off on using e-readers in the classroom unless the technology can accommodate disabled students.

Though many of those problems are being or have been addressed, some of the most tech-savvy students aren't quite ready to endorse the devices for academic use. And some educational psychologists suggest the dizzying array of options and choices offered by the ever-evolving technology may be making it harder to learn rather than easier.

"The challenge for working in the electronic age is that we have so much access to information but we still have the same brain we always had," says Richard Mayer, psychology professor at the University of California-Santa Barbara. He focuses on how multimedia can enhance learning. "The problem is not access to information. It is integrating that information and making sense out of it."

A matter of distraction

There's a lot to like about digital learning. Santa Clara University student Christopher Paschal, 19, for example, appreciated the search function in his economics e-textbook, and said the included video clips offered "an alternative method of learning," and eliminated "the monotony of endless pages of reading."

But ultimately, "I feel that I comprehend material better in regular textbooks," Paschal says. Why? For starters, it's more difficult to look at a computer screen when you're tired, he says, and harder to concentrate when Facebook, YouTube and e-mail are just a click away.

Also, he and others say, it may simply be that the technology is still unfamiliar. Whereas e-readers have taken off in the leisure-reading market, publishers have been slower to jump into the education market. Reasons vary, but one challenge for publishers is that reading for the purpose of gaining knowledge is a more complex process than reading for pleasure.

"Usually in a novel you're going through it from start to finish. In a textbook you're constantly flipping back and forth. You're all over the book a lot more often," says Matt Lilek, 22, a part-time computer science major at Joliet Junior College in Illinois. "Textbook publishers haven't had a chance to tailor things for the iPad. If publishers really get behind the iPad, I can see a day where it's the only thing I would bring to school."

Even then, some evidence suggests students see a downside to 24/7 interactivity when it comes to preparing for exams or doing homework. During visits last fall to libraries, coffee shops and other campus hangouts to analyze how students study, a test-prep company noted that, when it was time to study, cellphones, laptops and Kindles were put away.

"In today's ADD society, textbooks are pleasantly single-dimensional and finite," says Jeff Olson, vice president of research for Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions, whose team conducted observational studies. "When I asked study participants why they didn't use their laptops to look something up, I heard some version of 'because that's my distraction.' "

More may not be better

A host of research over the past decade has shown that even the option to click hyperlinks to related material can create confusion and weaken understanding. One study found reading comprehension declined as the number of clickable links increased. A 2005 review by researchers at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, of 38 studies found "very little support" for the idea that all those links to additional information enrich the reader's experience. A 2007 study published in Media Psychology raised similar concerns about add-ons such as sound and animation.

The online environment "promotes cursory reading, hurried and distracted thinking, and superficial learning," argues Nicholas Carr, who raises concerns about the long-term implications in The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brain, which was published in June. "The danger is you don't encourage people to think critically and, ultimately, you don't encourage them to think creatively."

Some of the newer devices try to mimic traditional study behavior with features such as the ability to highlight text and take notes in the margins. Still, the gee-whiz technology doesn't necessarily help students study better, suggests a study published this month in Journal of Educational Psychology. Students often highlight too much material, so building a highlighting function into the technology may simply enable students to continue an ineffective habit, the study found. "Worse, they may not even process or understand what they select," says study author Ken Kiewra, a professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Despite reservations, expectations remain high for e-reader technology on campuses. Seton Hill University in Pennsylvania and George Fox University in Oregon plan to give or phase in iPads for most students starting this fall. At a ceremony Friday, each member of the UC Irvine School of Medicine's incoming class of 2014 received not only the traditional white coat, but also a shiny new iPad, pre-loaded with everything necessary for the first year of course work.

Scores of others, including Reed College and North Carolina State University, plan to offer opportunities for students to test-drive iPads. And two-thirds of campus technology chiefs predicted last fall that e-books will become an "important platform for instructional resources" within five years, according to the Campus Computing Project.

Publishers, meanwhile, have big ideas for personalizing student learning. "That's the great promise," says Don Kilburn, president of Pearson Learning Solutions, a publisher of education materials.

More glitches are perhaps inevitable. But the technological advances "represent very real potential to remake education for the better," says Kaplan's Olson. "The potential for the textbook to come alive with interactivity ... will make the next several years of e-book innovation fascinating to watch."

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Tommy Medica is no stranger to the awards podium at the annual Santa Clara County Hot Stove Banquet. Neither are Troy Tulowitzki, Daniel Nava, Chris Balcom-Miller, Jeremy Guthrie and the San Jose Giants, for that matter.

All of them are past Hot Stove award winners, and they'll all be on the podium again when the county's baseball best are recognized at the 27th annual Santa Clara County Hot Stove Banquet on Jan. 25 at the San Jose Elks Club.

Major League stars Tulowitzki of the Colorado Rockies, Guthrie of the Baltimore Orioles and Nava of the Boston Red Sox will top the list of awardees when master of ceremonies Ted Robinson announces the line-up of winners that also includes Medica, Balcom-Miller, the San Jose Giants and a host of amateur baseball standouts.

Tulowitzki is the Major League Player of the Year, Guthrie the Major League Pitcher of the Year and Nava the Major League Rookie of the Year on the Hot Stove awards list.

Medica is the College Player of the Year after his sensational senior season as Santa Clara University's catcher and Erik Johnson of UC-Berkeley is the College Pitcher of the Year. Stanford's Ben Clowe, Curtis Wagner of Santa Clara University and Tim Quiery of San Jos� State University are each winners of the Loyd Christopher Award.

Balcom-Miller, a former Leigh star who went on to play at West Valley College before signing with the Rockies and getting traded to the Red Sox, is the Minor League Pitcher of the Year and Eric Thames, a former Bellarmine Prep and West Valley standout who is in the Toronto Blue Jays organization, is the Minor League Player of the Year.

Community College Player of the Year Michael Durham of West Valley and Community College Pitcher of the Year Don Medlinger of San Jose City will also be honored. Medlinger is a former Pioneer High School standout and Durham starred at Branham.

Archbishop Mitty's Alex Balog of Saratoga has been named the High School Player of the Year and Kevin Goulette of Mountain View is the Frank Bettencourt High School Academic Achievement Award winner.

Winning special awards at the event will be: Robert Martinez, Ted Barrett Amateur Umpire Award; Archbishop Mitty baseball team, Special Achievement Award; Mark Gonzales, Sports Media Person of the Year; Don Lyle of the Cleveland Indians, Scout of the Year; and Karen Sweeney of the San Francisco Giants, Kathy Wolff Women in Baseball Award.

The Palo Alto Oaks have won the Outstanding Amateur Organization of the Year award and the San Jose Giants are winners of the Outstanding Professional Organization award after winning their second straight California League title and their fourth in six years.

This is the second trip to the Hot Stove podium for Medica, who won the College Player of the Year award in 2008 after breaking in with an exceptional freshman year for the Broncos.

He returns as an award winner after having quite a year last spring in his fourth season as the starting catcher for the Broncos. Medica hit .386 with 88 hits, 67 runs-batted-in, 21 doubles, two triples and 13 home runs in 54 games and was named to the all-West Coast Conference first team. Medica, an all-Central Coast Section player and league MVP for coach Gary Cunningham at Bellarmine, was selected in the 14th round of the 2010 draft by the San Diego Padres and played for the Eugene Emeralds in the Northwest League last summer.

Medica, an Almaden Valley resident, finished his Santa Clara career with a solid .370 average. He had 239 hits, including 21 homers, eight triples and 52 doubles.

The 27th annual Hot Stove Banquet will be held on Jan. 25 at the San Jose Elks Club, 444 W. Alma Ave. Tickets are $45 per person, $450 for a reserved table for 10 ($350 for a reserved table for 10 for youth, high school, community college and college baseball groups). For more details, call Al Talboy at 408.446.3443.

Tommy Medica is no stranger to the awards podium at the annual Santa Clara County Hot Stove Banquet. Neither are Troy Tulowitzki, Daniel Nava, Chris Balcom-Miller, Jeremy Guthrie and the San Jose Giants, for that matter.

All of them are past Hot Stove award winners, and they'll all be on the podium again when the county's baseball best are recognized at the 27th annual Santa Clara County Hot Stove Banquet on Jan. 25 at the San Jose Elks Club.

Major League stars Tulowitzki of the Colorado Rockies, Guthrie of the Baltimore Orioles and Nava of the Boston Red Sox will top the list of awardees when master of ceremonies Ted Robinson announces the line-up of winners that also includes Medica, Balcom-Miller, the San Jose Giants and a host of amateur baseball standouts.

Tulowitzki is the Major League Player of the Year, Guthrie the Major League Pitcher of the Year and Nava the Major League Rookie of the Year on the Hot Stove awards list.

Medica is the College Player of the Year after his sensational senior season as Santa Clara University's catcher and Erik Johnson of UC-Berkeley is the College Pitcher of the Year. Stanford's Ben Clowe, Curtis Wagner of Santa Clara University and Tim Quiery of San José State University are each winners of the Loyd Christopher Award.

Balcom-Miller, a former Leigh star who went on to play at West Valley College before signing with the Rockies and getting traded to the Red Sox, is the Minor League

Pitcher of the Year and Eric Thames, a former Bellarmine Prep and West Valley standout who is in the Toronto Blue Jays organization, is the Minor League Player of the Year.

Community College Player of the Year Michael Durham of West Valley and Community College Pitcher of the Year Don Medlinger of San Jose City will also be honored. Medlinger is a former Pioneer High School standout and Durham starred at Branham.

Archbishop Mitty's Alex Balog of Saratoga has been named the High School Player of the Year and Kevin Goulette of Mountain View is the Frank Bettencourt High School Academic Achievement Award winner.

Winning special awards at the event will be: Robert Martinez, Ted Barrett Amateur Umpire Award; Archbishop Mitty baseball team, Special Achievement Award; Mark Gonzales, Sports Media Person of the Year; Don Lyle of the Cleveland Indians, Scout of the Year; and Karen Sweeney of the San Francisco Giants, Kathy Wolff Women in Baseball Award.

The Palo Alto Oaks have won the Outstanding Amateur Organization of the Year award and the San Jose Giants are winners of the Outstanding Professional Organization award after winning their second straight California League title and their fourth in six years.

This is the second trip to the Hot Stove podium for Medica, who won the College Player of the Year award in 2008 after breaking in with an exceptional freshman year for the Broncos.

He returns as an award winner after having quite a year last spring in his fourth season as the starting catcher for the Broncos. Medica hit .386 with 88 hits, 67 runs-batted-in, 21 doubles, two triples and 13 home runs in 54 games and was named to the all-West Coast Conference first team. Medica, an all-Central Coast Section player and league MVP for coach Gary Cunningham at Bellarmine, was selected in the 14th round of the 2010 draft by the San Diego Padres and played for the Eugene Emeralds in the Northwest League last summer.

Medica, an Almaden Valley resident, finished his Santa Clara career with a solid .370 average. He had 239 hits, including 21 homers, eight triples and 52 doubles.

The 27th annual Hot Stove Banquet will be held on Jan. 25 at the San Jose Elks Club, 444 W. Alma Ave. Tickets are $45 per person, $450 for a reserved table for 10 ($350 for a reserved table for 10 for youth, high school, community college and college baseball groups). For more details, call Al Talboy at 408.446.3443.

Tommy Medica is no stranger to the awards podium at the annual Santa Clara County Hot Stove Banquet. Neither are Troy Tulowitzki, Daniel Nava, Chris Balcom-Miller, Jeremy Guthrie and the San Jose Giants, for that matter.

All of them are past Hot Stove award winners, and they'll all be on the podium again when the county's baseball best are recognized at the 27th annual Santa Clara County Hot Stove Banquet on Jan. 25 at the San Jose Elks Club.

Major League stars Tulowitzki of the Colorado Rockies, Guthrie of the Baltimore Orioles and Nava of the Boston Red Sox will top the list of awardees when master of ceremonies Ted Robinson announces the line-up of winners that also includes Medica, Balcom-Miller, the San Jose Giants and a host of amateur baseball standouts.

Tulowitzki is the Major League Player of the Year, Guthrie the Major League Pitcher of the Year and Nava the Major League Rookie of the Year on the Hot Stove awards list.

Medica is the College Player of the Year after his sensational senior season as Santa Clara University's catcher and Erik Johnson of UC-Berkeley is the College Pitcher of the Year. Stanford's Ben Clowe, Curtis Wagner of Santa Clara University and Tim Quiery of San José State University are each winners of the Loyd Christopher Award.

Balcom-Miller, a former Leigh star who went on to play at West Valley College before signing with the Rockies and getting traded to the Red Sox, is the Minor Leagueyld_mgr.place_ad_here("adPosBox"); Pitcher of the Year and Eric Thames, a former Bellarmine Prep and West Valley standout who is in the Toronto Blue Jays organization, is the Minor League Player of the Year.

Community College Player of the Year Michael Durham of West Valley and Community College Pitcher of the Year Don Medlinger of San Jose City will also be honored. Medlinger is a former Pioneer High School standout and Durham starred at Branham.

Archbishop Mitty's Alex Balog of Saratoga has been named the High School Player of the Year and Kevin Goulette of Mountain View is the Frank Bettencourt High School Academic Achievement Award winner.

Winning special awards at the event will be: Robert Martinez, Ted Barrett Amateur Umpire Award; Archbishop Mitty baseball team, Special Achievement Award; Mark Gonzales, Sports Media Person of the Year; Don Lyle of the Cleveland Indians, Scout of the Year; and Karen Sweeney of the San Francisco Giants, Kathy Wolff Women in Baseball Award.

The Palo Alto Oaks have won the Outstanding Amateur Organization of the Year award and the San Jose Giants are winners of the Outstanding Professional Organization award after winning their second straight California League title and their fourth in six years.

This is the second trip to the Hot Stove podium for Medica, who won the College Player of the Year award in 2008 after breaking in with an exceptional freshman year for the Broncos.

He returns as an award winner after having quite a year last spring in his fourth season as the starting catcher for the Broncos. Medica hit .386 with 88 hits, 67 runs-batted-in, 21 doubles, two triples and 13 home runs in 54 games and was named to the all-West Coast Conference first team. Medica, an all-Central Coast Section player and league MVP for coach Gary Cunningham at Bellarmine, was selected in the 14th round of the 2010 draft by the San Diego Padres and played for the Eugene Emeralds in the Northwest League last summer.

Medica, an Almaden Valley resident, finished his Santa Clara career with a solid .370 average. He had 239 hits, including 21 homers, eight triples and 52 doubles.

The 27th annual Hot Stove Banquet will be held on Jan. 25 at the San Jose Elks Club, 444 W. Alma Ave. Tickets are $45 per person, $450 for a reserved table for 10 ($350 for a reserved table for 10 for youth, high school, community college and college baseball groups). For more details, call Al Talboy at 408.446.3443.

Bob Farrell was a legend at Merrill Lynch & Co. for several decades. Farrell had a front-row seat to the go-go markets of the late 1960s, mid-1980s and late 1990s, the brutal bear market of 1973-74, and October 1987's crash. He retired as chief stock market analyst at the end of 1992, but continued to occasionally publish. We have compiled the list from various sources and added our own comments along with those from other web posts. Trying to figure out when the markets are at an extreme is clearly an art form and less a science although there are many indicators we can use to try and quantify how extreme a condition currently exists. Recall Dr. Alan Greenspan's 1996 irrational exuberance speech was about 4 years early as the market maintained an extreme multiple for several more years. Bob's rule 7 was tested for almost 2 years in 1998 when the advance decline line of the NYSE peaked well in advance of the market leading to rule number 4. In any case, it is helpful to get an understanding of market risks (imbalances) and the old saying that you never go broke taking a profit.

1. Markets tend to return to the mean over time

When stocks go too far in one direction, they come back. Euphoria and pessimism can cloud people's heads. It's easy to get caught up in the heat of the moment and lose perspective.

2. Excesses in one direction will lead to an opposite excess in the other direction

Think of the market baseline as attached to a rubber string. Any action too far in one direction not only brings you back to the baseline, but leads to an overshoot in the opposite direction.

3. There are no new eras -- excesses are never permanent

Whatever the latest hot sector is, it eventually overheats, mean reverts, and then overshoots. While emerging markets have delivered an average of 30% annually for 20 years, they do so at more than double the volatility of domestic equities.

As the fever builds, a chorus of "this time it's different" will be heard, even if those exact words are never used. And of course, it -- human nature -- never is different.

4. Exponential rapidly rising or falling markets usually go further than you think, but they do not correct by going sideways

Regardless of how hot a sector is, don't expect a plateau to work off the excesses. Profits are locked in by selling, and that invariably leads to a significant correction -- eventually.

5. The public buys the most at the top and the least at the bottom

That's why contrarian-minded investors can make good money if they follow the sentiment indicators and have good timing.

Watch Investors Intelligence (measuring the mood of more than 100 investment newsletter writers) and the American Association of Individual Investors survey.

6. Fear and greed are stronger than long-term resolve

Investors can be their own worst enemy, particularly when emotions take hold. Gains "make us exuberant; they enhance well-being and promote optimism," says Santa Clara University finance professor Meir Statman. His studies of investor behavior show that "Losses bring sadness, disgust, fear, regret. Fear increases the sense of risk and some react by shunning stocks."

7. Markets are strongest when they are broad and weakest when they narrow to a handful of blue-chip names

Hence, why breadth and volume are so important. Think of it as strength in numbers. Broad momentum is hard to stop, Farrell observes. Watch for when momentum channels into a small number of stocks ("Nifty 50" stocks).

The number of eating disorders in young girls is on the rise. There are girls as young as five years of age that are concerned with their weight. To help understand where eating disorders in young girls typically stem

from and what type of help is available for young girls with eating disorders, I have interviewed therapist Allison Wisne.

Tell me a little bit about yourself.

"I received a Master's degree from Santa Clara University in Counseling Psychology. I work with clients both at the University of California, San Francisco and within a private practice to address many different issues. Specifically, I focus on working with women who are struggling with eating disorders."

What typically stems from eating disorders in young girls?

"Often times disordered eating patterns begin during adolescence as a way to create a sense of control or mastery in response to feelings of chaos or powerlessness. Restricting and purging behaviors can also develop as a way to fit what many girls see as the "ideal" body type through popular media outlets. These images do not promote healthy eating or self-esteem but are often seen as a gauge of self worth."

What type of impact does an eating disorder have on a girls overall life?

"When struggling with an eating disorder, whether it is restricting food intake, binging, purging, or compulsive eating, food consumption moves to the forefront of thoughts. These thoughts often become obsessive as the eating disorder progresses. Isolating oneself or avoiding eating with others are common and impact the support received. As the person becomes more focused on the eating disorder support becomes less and less."

Ethics is something that can affect someone in their personal and professional life. Typically, when people think of ethics, they think of a person's ability to tell the difference between right and wrong. According to Velasquez, Andre, Shanks, and Meyer, of Santa Clara University, (2008), "Ethics refers to well based standards of right and wrong that prescribe what humans ought to do, usually in terms of rights, obligations, benefits to society, fairness, or specific virtues." I am going to examine and discuss both personal and professional ethics, while explaining the importance of understanding one's own personal ethical perspective.

Personal ethics are based on someone's beliefs, values, and morals as well as determining what is right and what is wrong. There can be many things that influence a person's ethical standards. Some of these might include family, religion, and culture. Parents and family are usually the foundation of a person's ethical perceptions. From birth, most parents teach their children the differences between right and wrong as well as how they should behave in public. Often, if parents have a good ethical perspective, the child will adopt some of the same beliefs, values, and morals. Religion can also influence someone's ethical perspective. In many religions, it is taught that good will always prevail over evil, which can be a foundation for a person's ethical decisions. Another influence on a person's ethical perspective is culture. Each culture has cultural norms, which is what the majority of people use and follow. In many cultures, going against cultural norms such as committing a crime, which would be considered wrong, would be reprimanded or possibly endure time in jail.

Professional ethics may include showing integrity, being honest, and showing respect to other co-workers as well as clients in the workplace. Like personal ethics, professional ethics can also be influenced by a person's family, religion, and culture. It is often thought that if a person has a good personal ethical perspective then they will also have a good professional ethical perspective. While this may be correct in most cases, it is not in all cases. For example, I worked with someone who had a good personal ethical perspective. He was a good Christian man who followed cultural norms and made good choices. However, during work, he was caught stealing money from a register and was terminated. It was a very big surprise because I thought of him as a person who had good beliefs, values, and morals. Some people who are ethically good in their personal lives may be ethically corrupt in their professional lives.

In the ethical awareness inventory, my ethical perspective is based “on the results or consequences of [my] actions. [I] believe that conduct should be directed toward promoting the greatest good for the greatest number of persons.” (ethics-twi.org, 2008). I found this to be interesting and very much on target because in my personal and professional life, I am interested in the end result and how I can achieve it without being ethically corrupt. I want everyone to succeed and feel good about what it is that is being accomplished. I want both family and friends in my personal life as well as co-workers in my professional life to feel proud of their accomplishments that have been achieved honestly and with integrity. It is a great feeling to accomplish a goal while maintaining honesty and integrity. However, it is not always an easy task for everyone to complete a mutual goal because there tend to be competing views of the best way to accomplish the goal. Also, people in my personal and professional life “may not share my same ethical approach.” (ethics-twi.org, 2008). It is a good idea for people to have an understanding of their ethical perspective. It may help someone to see where they are ethically and help them correct the areas where they feel necessary.

A person's ethical perspective can affect them both in their personal life as well as their professional life. A person's ethics can be either good or bad. Some characteristics of someone with a good ethical perspective include honesty, integrity, and a sense of good beliefs, values, and morals. Someone who has a bad ethical perspective may in some cases be more likely to be dishonest, cheat, or steal. The ethical awareness inventory is an excellent tool for people to find out where they stand ethically in their personal and professional life. It may be able to provide someone who has a bad ethical perspective a thoughtful way to adjust to a good ethical perspective.

LSAT may not be compulsory for admission to law school any more | View Clip01/17/2011International Business Times

By IBTimes Staff Reporter | January 17, 2011 1:25 AM EST

The National Law Journal has reported that the American Bar Association (ABA) is now considering the possibility of making the LSAT optional for students wishing to enroll for graduation in law or Juris Doctor.

American (and most Canadian) students wishing to pursue a degree in law are required to sit for this standardized half-day test administered by the

Law School Admission Council (LSAC) , scores in which are treated by law schools as a reflection of acquired reading and verbal reasoning skills among applicants. The LSAT score has been a compulsory requirement in the application package of any student applying to law school to study for a J.D. In fact, high LSAT averages in schools have usually led to higher placement of schools in many of the reputed law school rankings, leading some of them to overemphasize these scores, often at the cost of diversity and other more rounded dimensions of student profile.

Now, according to reports from multiple sources, the ABA is contemplating scrapping the mandatory requirement of LSAT qualification and instead, leaving it up to the schools to decide whether they wish to make it a necessary application component. In the past, schools such as the Massachusetts School of Law, which scrapped the LSAT requirement, were not eligible for accreditation by the ABA; if the mentioned proposal is passed, any school would have the flexibility to decide its own admissions procedure with or without LSAT requirement, and without being penalized for it. The move is expected to encourage ongoing attempts to increase diversity in law school classes.

However, regardless of the ABA's final recommendation in this context, most law schools are expected to continue with the LSAT as a requirement for admissions, at least for now. As pointed out by Donald J. Polden, dean of the law school at Santa Clara University in Inside HigherEd, there is still a grey area around whether policies would govern that law schools may require the test of some but not all applicants. In such a situation, it could create problems for schools in reporting data relating to applicants and students.

Moreover, even if the LSAT score is completely negated for all students, the question of coming up with an alternative measure for the relative merits of applicants, especially in decisions of financial aid awards, would be a crucial one for schools.

(Photo: Reuters)

A file picture of the US Supreme Court after it upheld the University of Michigan's affirmative action policy that favors minorities who apply to its law school.

Santa Cruz. Calif. police are poised to be the first in the nation to use a new statistical model to predict crime and try to prevent it.

Police recently submitted eight years of crime reports to an applied mathematics professor at Santa Clara University, and he is mapping the time, location and recurrence of crimes to help police predict crime and tailor their patrols. It's an emerging, national movement called "predictive policing."

"I think the more you put police in areas where there is more crime, the more efficiently you're policing the city," said George Mohler, the Santa Clara University professor doing the research.

Mohler said the goal is not to arrest more people, but rather to have an officer patrolling a neighborhood so that a car burglary, for example, doesn't happen in the first place.

Friend and Santa Cruz police leaders met with Mohler and gave him data from 2002 to 2009 - as well as the city's 2010 data this week. The data focused on property crimes, including the time, date and location of home burglaries, vehicle burglaries and stolen vehicles. "The overall model is based on the belief that crime is not random. So with enough data points, you could predict where and when it will happen," Friend said.

If a person sees a laptop computer in a parked car, for example, and a police officer is driving by at the same time, the thief backs off. The crime is prevented, the person is not arrested and the police are more efficient on patrol.

Mohler expects to return his results to Santa Cruz police in the coming months, and police will decide how to change patrol locations and times within officers' usual shifts.

Tommy Medica is no stranger to the awards podium at the annual Santa Clara County Hot Stove Banquet. Neither are Troy Tulowitzki, Daniel Nava, Chris Balcom-Miller, Jeremy Guthrie and the San Jose Giants, for that matter.

All of them are past Hot Stove award winners, and they'll all be on the podium again when the county's baseball best are recognized at the 27th annual Santa Clara County Hot Stove Banquet on Jan. 25 at the San Jose Elks Club.

Major League stars Tulowitzki of the Colorado Rockies, Guthrie of the Baltimore Orioles and Nava of the Boston Red Sox will top the list of awardees when master of ceremonies Ted Robinson announces the line-up of winners that also includes Medica, Balcom-Miller, the San Jose Giants and a host of amateur baseball standouts.

Tulowitzki is the Major League Player of the Year, Guthrie the Major League Pitcher of the Year and Nava the Major League Rookie of the Year on the Hot Stove awards list.

Medica is the College Player of the Year after his sensational senior season as Santa Clara University's catcher and Erik Johnson of UC-Berkeley is the College Pitcher of the Year. Stanford's Ben Clowe, Curtis Wagner of Santa Clara University and Tim Quiery of San José State University are each winners of the Loyd Christopher Award.

Balcom-Miller, a former Leigh star who went on to play at West Valley College before signing with the Rockies and getting traded to the Red Sox, is the Minor League

Pitcher of the Year and Eric Thames, a former Bellarmine Prep and West Valley standout who is in the Toronto Blue Jays organization, is the Minor League Player of the Year.

Community College Player of the Year Michael Durham of West Valley and Community College Pitcher of the Year Don Medlinger of San Jose City will also be honored. Medlinger is a former Pioneer High School standout and Durham starred at Branham.

Archbishop Mitty's Alex Balog of Saratoga has been named the High School Player of the Year and Kevin Goulette of Mountain View is the Frank Bettencourt High School Academic Achievement Award winner.

Winning special awards at the event will be: Robert Martinez, Ted Barrett Amateur Umpire Award; Archbishop Mitty baseball team, Special Achievement Award; Mark Gonzales, Sports Media Person of the Year; Don Lyle of the Cleveland Indians, Scout of the Year; and Karen Sweeney of the San Francisco Giants, Kathy Wolff Women in Baseball Award.

The Palo Alto Oaks have won the Outstanding Amateur Organization of the Year award and the San Jose Giants are winners of the Outstanding Professional Organization award after winning their second straight California League title and their fourth in six years.

This is the second trip to the Hot Stove podium for Medica, who won the College Player of the Year award in 2008 after breaking in with an exceptional freshman year for the Broncos.

He returns as an award winner after having quite a year last spring in his fourth season as the starting catcher for the Broncos. Medica hit .386 with 88 hits, 67 runs-batted-in, 21 doubles, two triples and 13 home runs in 54 games and was named to the all-West Coast Conference first team. Medica, an all-Central Coast Section player and league MVP for coach Gary Cunningham at Bellarmine, was selected in the 14th round of the 2010 draft by the San Diego Padres and played for the Eugene Emeralds in the Northwest League last summer.

Medica, an Almaden Valley resident, finished his Santa Clara career with a solid .370 average. He had 239 hits, including 21 homers, eight triples and 52 doubles.

The 27th annual Hot Stove Banquet will be held on Jan. 25 at the San Jose Elks Club, 444 W. Alma Ave. Tickets are $45 per person, $450 for a reserved table for 10 ($350 for a reserved table for 10 for youth, high school, community college and college baseball groups). For more details, call Al Talboy at 408.446.3443.

Internet deal site Groupon--which recently hired ex-Amazon exec Jason Child as its chief financial officer--will soon join Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn in offering stock in its company for the first time, causing what will likely amount to a financial tantric orgasm on Wall Street. But before that happens, the super-rich are apparently already trying to get their hands on the stock before anyone else. And the reason for doing so isn't just for the money--it's more for the pimp status that goes with having it.

The San Jose Mercury ran an eye-opening article on Sunday that details how rich, insidery traders will stop at nothing to get their hands on stock from a handful of companies that are about to have their must-anticipated Initial Public Offerings.

As the piece reports, buying these stocks is all about ego.

The obsessive desire among the unimaginably wealthy for pre-IPO shares in social-networking startups is not about the money. OK, maybe it's a little about the money, but there is more at play here. Why else would those who have more cash than they know what to do with want to speculate on stock that isn't even trading publicly? Because it's cool. Yep.

"Think about meeting someone at a party who mentions, as an aside of course, that he got some shares of Facebook through Goldman. Surely he gains more status than someone who flashes a Rolex watch."

Pre-IPO valuations for Facebook, Groupon, and Twitter are exploding right now at $53 billion, $15 billion and $3.7 billion, respectively.

Groupon, which has already turned down a $6 billion buyout from Google and recently raised $950 million to finance a huge global expansion, has been throwing around this spring or summer as a time frame for going public.

The Wall Street Journal ran a piece on Sunday reporting that investment bankers have been a constant fixture of late at Groupon's headquarters, while terms of the IPO are worked out.

But where are the super-secret pimp-daddy beta shares? The Mercury doesn't say. But Business Insider does. Apparently the "obscure secondary exchange" SharesPost tracks pre-IPO valuations of all the aforementioned companies, and if you're one of the few elite traders to be approved, it may be able to help you get your hands on some before-market shares.

That's assuming, of course, that a) you're a bit of a prick, and b) you have millions and millions of dollars to spend on insanely marked-up stocks.

Sure, every time you turn around you're reading about some scheme for wealthy investors to get their hands on shares of Facebook (not to mention Twitter, Zynga, Groupon, LinkedIn) before the stock goes public and soars into the stratosphere without them. And yes, these sales of FB shares on the secondary market and through masters of the universe Goldman Sachs just seem like another rich-get-richer scheme.

But calm down. I'm here to help.

The obsessive desire among the unimaginably wealthy for pre-IPO shares in social networking startups is not about the money. OK, maybe it's a little about the money, but there is more at play here. Why else would those who have more cash than they know what to do with want to speculate on stock that isn't even trading publicly? Because it's cool. Yep.

"Think about meeting someone at a party who mentions, as an aside of course, that he got some shares of Facebook through Goldman," Meir Statman, a Santa Clara University finance professor with a new book, tells me by e-mail. "Surely he gains more status than someone who flashes a Rolex watch."

And if all goes well, someone will ask Statman's fictional stockholder how much the shares cost, giving him the opportunity to say: "If you have to ask, you can't afford it."

Think of it as trophy stock. A status symbol. I know. It's a hard idea to get your arms around. But if you've Advertisementgot millions and millions -- or billions and billions -- maybe making millions and millions more in a plain vanilla way loses its charm. Maybe you want a little bling with that investment.

I'd sent an e-mail to Statman, who studies behavioral finance, to see if he had any insight into the feeding frenzy in Facebook's pre-IPO stock. I mean, think about it: Investors are buying stock essentially on faith, given the limited financial information available about the Palo Alto company. They are buying into a frothy, and somewhat underground, market. Shares are being bid up before the IPO, meaning the IPO bounce will need to be all the more spectacular to produce dizzying returns.

And yet the demand has been downright nutty. Goldman Sachs offered its wealthy clients (OK, they're all wealthy clients) the chance to buy pre-IPO Facebook shares. The idea took off among the crowd that has at least $2 million to invest, which was the bare minimum required to get Goldman's attention. In fact, so many barbarians rushed the gate that Goldman had to close the offer early to stop the frenzy. (Think of it as a door-buster special for the other half.)

"They have people who are just rushing to give them whatever money they want, just to be associated with Facebook," Statman says of Goldman and Facebook.

Statman has given this a lot of thought, and his argument makes a lot of sense. You might say he wrote the book: "What Investors Really Want: Discover What Drives Investor Behavior and Make Smarter Financial Decisions." The work is a study of what motivates investors, besides the seemingly innate desire to be rich.

"Maybe they are looking for some things that are different from money, whether they know it or not. And I think status is a perfect example," Statman says. "We do many things that seem to make little sense."

Dan Goldie, an independent financial adviser in Menlo Park, says Statman has a good point. Yes, one of his clients asked about investing early in Facebook. "And my answer was that I didn't think that kind of investing was necessary," Goldie says, "that we're following a disciplined plan and we don't need to speculate, which is what I consider that to be."

For his part Statman is not judgmental. He's just pointing out that investors are humans and humans are complicated. Some investors are looking to make money and be socially responsible. Some want money and security. Some want the rush of a risky bet. In this regard the rich are no different from you and me. (Well, except for the $2 million part.)

If someone wants to invest in Facebook and has a way to do it, Statman says, so be it. He simply hopes to help investors understand their motivations. He suggests people ask themselves, "What is the money being invested for?" Food and shelter? Fun? Retirement? Kids' education? Or is it status -- which is a legitimate goal, as long as you can afford it. And as long as you don't overdo it.

"If they really think about it as something of a blood sport, where you're competing against your neighbor or people in your social circle to get the most money, if it's a game, at some point it gets to be an empty game, and not really a very satisfying one," he says. "There is always somebody who's got more."

Somebody who's got more. Like the people you've been reading about who are snapping up early Facebook shares. No, I can't tell you how you can become one of them.

But at least now you know what in the world they're thinking.

Contact Mike Cassidy at mcassidy@mercurynews.com or 408-920-5536. Follow him at Twitter.com/mikecassidy.

Sure, every time you turn around you're reading about some scheme for wealthy investors to get their hands on shares of Facebook (not to mention Twitter, Zynga, Groupon, LinkedIn) before the stock goes public and soars into the stratosphere without them. And yes, these sales of FB shares on the secondary market and through masters of the universe Goldman Sachs just seem like another rich-get-richer scheme.

But calm down. I'm here to help.

The obsessive desire among the unimaginably wealthy for pre-IPO shares in social networking startups is not about the money. OK, maybe it's a little about the money, but there is more at play here. Why else would those who have more cash than they know what to do with want to speculate on stock that isn't even trading publicly? Because it's cool. Yep.

"Think about meeting someone at a party who mentions, as an aside of course, that he got some shares of Facebook through Goldman," Meir Statman, a Santa Clara University finance professor with a new book, tells me by e-mail. "Surely he gains more status than someone who flashes a Rolex watch."

And if all goes well, someone will ask Statman's fictional stockholder how much the shares cost, giving him the opportunity to say: "If you have to ask, you can't afford it."

Think of it as trophy stock. A status symbol. I know. It's a hard idea to get your arms around. But if you've

got millions and millions -- or billions and billions -- maybe making millions and millions more in a plain vanilla way loses its charm. Maybe you want a little bling with that investment.

I'd sent an e-mail to Statman, who studies behavioral finance, to see if he had any insight into the feeding frenzy in Facebook's pre-IPO stock. I mean, think about it: Investors are buying stock essentially on faith, given the limited financial information available about the Palo Alto company. They are buying into a frothy, and somewhat underground, market. Shares are being bid up before the IPO, meaning the IPO bounce will need to be all the more spectacular to produce dizzying returns.

And yet the demand has been downright nutty. Goldman Sachs offered its wealthy clients (OK, they're all wealthy clients) the chance to buy pre-IPO Facebook shares. The idea took off among the crowd that has at least $2 million to invest, which was the bare minimum required to get Goldman's attention. In fact, so many barbarians rushed the gate that Goldman had to close the offer early to stop the frenzy. (Think of it as a door-buster special for the other half.)

"They have people who are just rushing to give them whatever money they want, just to be associated with Facebook," Statman says of Goldman and Facebook.

Statman has given this a lot of thought, and his argument makes a lot of sense. You might say he wrote the book: "What Investors Really Want: Discover What Drives Investor Behavior and Make Smarter Financial Decisions." The work is a study of what motivates investors, besides the seemingly innate desire to be rich.

"Maybe they are looking for some things that are different from money, whether they know it or not. And I think status is a perfect example," Statman says. "We do many things that seem to make little sense."

Dan Goldie, an independent financial adviser in Menlo Park, says Statman has a good point. Yes, one of his clients asked about investing early in Facebook. "And my answer was that I didn't think that kind of investing was necessary," Goldie says, "that we're following a disciplined plan and we don't need to speculate, which is what I consider that to be."

For his part Statman is not judgmental. He's just pointing out that investors are humans and humans are complicated. Some investors are looking to make money and be socially responsible. Some want money and security. Some want the rush of a risky bet. In this regard the rich are no different from you and me. (Well, except for the $2 million part.)

If someone wants to invest in Facebook and has a way to do it, Statman says, so be it. He simply hopes to help investors understand their motivations. He suggests people ask themselves, "What is the money being invested for?" Food and shelter? Fun? Retirement? Kids' education? Or is it status -- which is a legitimate goal, as long as you can afford it. And as long as you don't overdo it.

"If they really think about it as something of a blood sport, where you're competing against your neighbor or people in your social circle to get the most money, if it's a game, at some point it gets to be an empty game, and not really a very satisfying one," he says. "There is always somebody who's got more."

Somebody who's got more. Like the people you've been reading about who are snapping up early Facebook shares. No, I can't tell you how you can become one of them.

But at least now you know what in the world they're thinking.

Contact Mike Cassidy at mcassidy@mercurynews.com or 408-920-5536. Follow him at Twitter.com/mikecassidy.

May Drop LSAT Requirement." Donald J. Polden, dean of the law school at Santa Clara University and chair of the ABA committee studying the standards, said dropping the LSAT as an accreditation requirement would provide "greater flexibility for schools to achieve diversity goals in their admitted classes...."

But why stop there? Since promoting "diversity" seems to be such an important goal for the ABA, why doesn't it recommend that law schools eliminate grades? That would neatly solve the problem of preferentially admitted minority student being clustered at the bottom of their classes. As

summarized by Gail Heriot of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, the research of UCLA law professor Richard Sander
demonstrates that in elite law schools, 51.6% of African-American law students had first-year GPAs in the bottom 10% of their class as opposed to only 5.6% of white students in 1992 (the year for which Sander was able to find national data).... At mid-range public schools, the median African-American student's first-year grades corresponded to the 5th percentile among white students. For mid-range private schools, the corresponding percentile was 8th, and for lower-range private schools it was 7th. With disappointingly few exceptions, African-American students were grouped towards the bottom of their class. Moreover, contrary to popular lore, the performance gap did not close as students continued through law school. Instead, by graduation, it had gotten wider.
Getting rid of grades would completely eliminate this rampant racial stratification.

But why stop with grades? In his study of graduates of the University of Michigan law school, Prof. Sander

testified that "black graduates of the law school [were] about eight times as likely as white graduates of the law school to fail state bar examinations on their first attempt." Since state bar exams have such a disparate impact on minority applicants, shouldn't the ABA recommend their elimination as well in order to promote more "diversity" in the legal profession?

Surely there must be at least one Libertarian on the ABA committee who could explain that officially imposed barriers to entry into a profession, such as strict licensing requirements and exams, are an offense against economic freedom and that the market would rid itself (eventually) of incompetent practitioners.

Sure, every time you turn around you're reading about some scheme for wealthy investors to get their hands on shares of Facebook (not to mention Twitter, Zynga, Groupon, LinkedIn) before the stock goes public and soars into the stratosphere without them. And yes, these sales of FB shares on the secondary market and through masters of the universe Goldman Sachs just seem like another rich-get-richer scheme.

But calm down. I'm here to help.

The obsessive desire among the unimaginably wealthy for pre-IPO shares in social networking startups is not about the money. OK, maybe it's a little about the money, but there is more at play here. Why else would those who have more cash than they know what to do with want to speculate on stock that isn't even trading publicly? Because it's cool. Yep.

"Think about meeting someone at a party who mentions, as an aside of course, that he got some shares of Facebook through Goldman," Meir Statman, a Santa Clara University finance professor with a new book, tells me by e-mail. "Surely he gains more status than someone who flashes a Rolex watch."

And if all goes well, someone will ask Statman's fictional stockholder how much the shares cost, giving him the opportunity to say: "If you have to ask, you can't afford it."

Think of it as trophy stock. A status symbol. I know. It's a hard idea to get your arms around. But if you've got millions and millions -- or billions and billions -- maybe making millions and millions more in a plain vanilla way loses its charm. Maybe you want a little bling with that investment.

I'd sent an e-mail to Statman, who studies behavioral finance, to see if he had any insight into the feeding frenzy in Facebook's pre-IPO stock. I mean, think about it: Investors are buying stock essentially on faith, given the limited financial information available about the Palo Alto company. They are buying into a frothy, and somewhat underground, market. Shares are being bid up before the IPO, meaning the IPO bounce will need to be all the more spectacular to produce dizzying returns.

And yet the demand has been downright nutty. Goldman Sachs offered its wealthy clients (OK, they're all wealthy clients) the chance to buy pre-IPO Facebook shares. The idea took off among the crowd that has at least $2 million to invest, which was the bare minimum required to get Goldman's attention. In fact, so many barbarians rushed the gate that Goldman had to close the offer early to stop the frenzy. (Think of it as a door-buster special for the other half.)

"They have people who are just rushing to give them whatever money they want, just to be associated with Facebook," Statman says of Goldman and Facebook.

Statman has given this a lot of thought, and his argument makes a lot of sense. You might say he wrote the book: "What Investors Really Want: Discover What Drives Investor Behavior and Make Smarter Financial Decisions." The work is a study of what motivates investors, besides the seemingly innate desire to be rich.

"Maybe they are looking for some things that are different from money, whether they know it or not. And I think status is a perfect example," Statman says. "We do many things that seem to make little sense."

Dan Goldie, an independent financial adviser in Menlo Park, says Statman has a good point. Yes, one of his clients asked about investing early in Facebook. "And my answer was that I didn't think that kind of investing was necessary," Goldie says, "that we're following a disciplined plan and we don't need to speculate, which is what I consider that to be."

For his part Statman is not judgmental. He's just pointing out that investors are humans and humans are complicated. Some investors are looking to make money and be socially responsible. Some want money and security. Some want the rush of a risky bet. In this regard the rich are no different from you and me. (Well, except for the $2 million part.)

If someone wants to invest in Facebook and has a way to do it, Statman says, so be it. He simply hopes to help investors understand their motivations. He suggests people ask themselves, "What is the money being invested for?" Food and shelter? Fun? Retirement? Kids' education? Or is it status -- which is a legitimate goal, as long as you can afford it. And as long as you don't overdo it.

"If they really think about it as something of a blood sport, where you're competing against your neighbor or people in your social circle to get the most money, if it's a game, at some point it gets to be an empty game, and not really a very satisfying one," he says. "There is always somebody who's got more."

Somebody who's got more. Like the people you've been reading about who are snapping up early Facebook shares. No, I can't tell you how you can become one of them.

But at least now you know what in the world they're thinking.

Contact Mike Cassidy at mcassidy@mercurynews.com or 408-920-5536. Follow him at Twitter.com/mikecassidy.

Santa Cruz police are poised to be the first in the nation to use a new statistical model to predict crime and try to prevent it.

Police recently submitted eight years of crime reports to an applied mathematics professor at Santa Clara University, and he is mapping the time, location and recurrence of crimes to help police predict crime and tailor their patrols. It's an emerging, national movement called "predictive policing."

"I think the more you put police in areas where there is more crime, the more efficiently you're policing the city," said George Mohler, the Santa Clara University professor doing the research.

Mohler, who is doing the work at no charge, said the goal is not to arrest more people, but rather to have an officer patrolling a neighborhood so that a car burglary, for example, doesn't happen in the first place.

Zach Friend, a crime analyst for the Santa Cruz Police Department, said he approached Mohler after reading news reports about predictive policing. In November, Friend and Santa Cruz police leaders met with Mohler and gave him data from 2002 to 2009 -- as well as the city's 2010 data this week. The data focused on property crimes, including time, date and location.

"The overall model is based on the belief that crime is not random. So with enough data points, you could predict where and when it will happen," Friend said.

The changes will start in February at the soonest, police said. Police anticipate that officers will receive instructions in their roll call meetings before each shift to talk about places and times to perform extra checks, Friend said. Supervisors also might discuss predicted spikes in crime.

Private share offerings occur every week in the United States. By one estimate, they are nearly as common as public security sales.

But the recent news that Goldman Sachs would sell private shares in Facebook, the world's largest social networking site and a private company, was met with some criticism that the offering was only open to the richest of the rich.

Yet that is the audience for all these private offerings. In reality, they are the only people who could -- and should -- invest in such high-risk private deals. Sure, the deals might offer phenomenal returns, but they might also be worthless. Only the wealthy can absorb that level of loss.

The private offerings "are often narrow or targeted investments," said David Bailin, global head of managed investments at Citi Private Bank. "It's a highly concentrated investment, probably not that liquid, but it's how it's designed."

Both advisers and academics said the bigger issue with private placements was being overlooked in the hoopla over Goldman and Facebook -- that private placements are not intended to be liquid. Investors expecting liquidity could face unexpected losses.

Private placements have various uses and names. They are not required to have extensive disclosures, although many have prospectuses that rival public offerings in detail. But the allure is always the same: access to something that could offer high returns in exchange for high risk.

John Coffee Jr., a professor at Columbia University Law School and director of its Center on Corporate Governance, said Facebook and Goldman ''gave investors a 100-page memorandum, which they're not obligated to do."

What's the allure of the deal, since the profitability has been roundly questioned?

Meir Statman, professor of finance at Santa Clara University, said people willing to invest in the Facebook offering were being lured by "attraction status." He said investing in an offering with such a $2 million minimum investment signaled that the investor was wealthy.

Private placements are not for every investor. To be considered an "accredited investor" by the Securities and Exchange Commission, a person either has to have a net worth of $1 million or an annual income in excess of $200,000 ($300,000 for couples) over the past two years.

Reporter: SHE IS WITH SANTA CLARA UNIVERSITY CENTER FOR SCIENCE, IT TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY.01/16/2011NBC Bay Area News Weekend Morning - KNTV-TV

GOOD MORNING TO YOU. IT IS SUNDAY MORNING AND I WOULD SAY BRIGHT AND EARLY BUT IT IS NOT. IT IS FOGGY AND EARLY. METEOROLOGIST ROB MAYEDA WILL TAKE A LOOK AT THAT FORECAST THAT HAS FOG ALL AROUND THE BAY AREA. IN JUST ABOUT TWO MINUTES. FIRST WE WANT TO TALK ABOUT A REVOLUTION UNDER WAY, ONE THAT YOU'RE PROBABLY PART OF IF YOU HAVE A SMARTPHONE. THERE'S SO MANY FOLKS WHO OWN SMARTPHONES AND IT'S A COMBINATION OF POWERFUL PORTABLE COMPUTER, CONSTANT INTERNET ACCESS, GPS, NOT ONLY IS THE TECHNOLOGY CHANGES BUT IT IS ALSO CHANGES THE WAY WE USE IT. HERE'S "TODAY IN THE BAY" GARVIN THOMAS. GREEN, BROWN. WHAT DOES THAT MEAN? Reporter: LIKE MILLIONS OF OTHER AMERICANS, JEFF CRAMER IS COLOR-BLIND. FORTUNATE LIR FOR HIM WHEN IT COMES TO PICKING OUT HIS CLOTHES HIS WIFE IS MORE THAN WILLING TO HELP HIM OUT. WE HAVE IT DOWN TO A SCIENCE WHERE I'LL WALK OUT AND SHE'LL GO NO, AND THEN BACK IN. Reporter: BUT NOW, WHEN SHE'S NOT AVAILABLE, THERE IS SOMEONE OR SOMETHING ELSE CRAMER CAN TURN TO. HIS PHONE. A NEW SMARTPHONE APP JUST RELEASED THAT HELPS COLOR BLIND PEOPLE SEE WHAT THEY'VE BEEN MISSING. I CAN REALLY NOW THAT REALLY JUMPS OUT. Reporter: THE DAN CAM IS AN ADJUSTABLE FILTER A USER CAN CUSTOMIZE TO COMPENSATE FOR HIS OR HER DEFISH SHEN. I IF YOU'RE COLOR-BLIND YOU REALLY JUST CANNOT TELL THAT RED FROM THAT GREEN. Reporter: DAN CAM IS NAMED FOR ITS DEVELOPER, DAN KA MIN SKI. A SECURITY EXPERT BY DAY, HE SAYS HE BUILT THE APP TO HELP A FRIEND WHO IS COLOR-BLIND AND FRANKLY SHOCKED BY HOW MANY PEOPLE HE ENDED UP HELPING. PEOPLE ARE TELLING ME THEY'RE IN TEARS. IF YOU'RE NOT COLOR-BLIND YOU MAY BE WONDERING WHY YOU SHOULD CARE ABOUT AN APP LIKE THIS. IT'S AN EXAMPLE OF WHERE MOBILE TECHNOLOGY IS HEADING. WHAT STARTED OUT AS A WAY TO LISTEN TO MUSIC OR PLAY GAMES IS TURNING OUT TO BE SO MUCH MORE, AND WE'RE JUST AT THE BEGINNING OF THE REVOLUTION. THIS MOBILE DEVICE IS SOLVING PROBLEMS IN WAYS WE COULD NEVER EVEN THINK OF DOING BEFORE. Reporter:RADHA BASU IS WITH SANTA CLARA UNIVERSITY CENTER FOR SCIENCE, IT TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY. SHE POINTS TO APPS THAT TURN MOBILE FOENS INTO MICRO SCOPES, HEART MONITORING, HEARING AIDS, ONES THAT HELP BLIND PEOPLE NAV DATE CITY STREETS. TRULY LIFE SAV CHANGING APPLICATIONS. PROBLEMS OF SOCIETY WE NEVER THOUGHT WE COULD SOLVE BEFORE, THAT IS STARTING TO GET ADDRESSED. Reporter: AND STARTING, SHE SAYS, IS THE KEY WORD. IT'S A MATTER OF TIME BEFORE TECHNOLOGY HELPS ALL OF US SEE THE WORLD AROUND US A LITTLE DIFFERENTLY. GARVIN THOMAS, NBC BAY AREA NEWS. I HAVE A LOT OF APPS ON MY PHONE BUT ONE THAT CANNOT REPLACE YOU. REALLY? THERE'S APPS FOR EVERYTHING, THOUGH. MOBILE ROB. YOU NEED A FOG HORN APP. THIS MORNING IT IS SOUPY OUTSIDE. SEE THAT'S THE VIEW FROM SAN BRUNO MOUNTAIN DOWN TO SAN FRANCISCO. CHECKING SFO AIRPORT, GROUND DELAY PROGRAM IN EFFECT FOR ARRIVING FLIGHTS FROM 8:30 TO 1:00 THIS AFTERNOON. AIRPORT OPERATIONS PROBABLY GOING TO BE IMPACTED INTO THE AFTERNOON. BAY AREA WIDE WE'RE LOOKING AT VISIBILITY DOWN TO A QUARTER MILE OR LESS HOUR BY HOUR. SEE BY LUNCH TIME, THE AREAS IN YELLOW WE'RE EXPECTING THE FOG TO BREAK UP AROUND THE SOUTH BAY AROUND MIDDAY. HEAD THROUGH 3:00, MID 60s IN SAN JOSE BUT INLAND PROBABLY HAVE SOME 50s AND 60s FOR HIGHS OUT TOWARDS SOLANO COUNTY AND THE DELTA. DRY TODAY, CAN WE KEEP THIS GOING FOR THE NEXT FEW DAYS? A LOOK AT THE SEVEN-DAY FORECAST COMING UP IN A FEW MINUTES. THANK YOU VERY MUCH, ROB.

Reporter: SHE IS WITH SANTA CLARA UNIVERSITY CENTER FOR SCIENCE, IT TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY.01/16/2011NBC Bay Area News at 5 AM - KNTV-TV

GOOD MORNING TO YOU. IT IS SUNDAY MORNING AND I WOULD SAY BRIGHT AND EARLY BUT IT IS NOT. IT IS FOGGY AND EARLY. METEOROLOGIST ROB MAYEDA WILL TAKE A LOOK AT THAT FORECAST THAT HAS FOG ALL AROUND THE BAY AREA. IN JUST ABOUT TWO MINUTES. FIRST WE WANT TO TALK ABOUT A REVOLUTION UNDER WAY, ONE THAT YOU'RE PROBABLY PART OF IF YOU HAVE A SMARTPHONE. THERE'S SO MANY FOLKS WHO OWN SMARTPHONES AND IT'S A COMBINATION OF POWERFUL PORTABLE COMPUTER, CONSTANT INTERNET ACCESS, GPS, NOT ONLY IS THE TECHNOLOGY CHANGES BUT IT IS ALSO CHANGES THE WAY WE USE IT. HERE'S "TODAY IN THE BAY" GARVIN THOMAS. GREEN, BROWN. WHAT DOES THAT MEAN? Reporter: LIKE MILLIONS OF OTHER AMERICANS, JEFF CRAMER IS COLOR-BLIND. FORTUNATE LIR FOR HIM WHEN IT COMES TO PICKING OUT HIS CLOTHES HIS WIFE IS MORE THAN WILLING TO HELP HIM OUT. WE HAVE IT DOWN TO A SCIENCE WHERE I'LL WALK OUT AND SHE'LL GO NO, AND THEN BACK IN. Reporter: BUT NOW, WHEN SHE'S NOT AVAILABLE, THERE IS SOMEONE OR SOMETHING ELSE CRAMER CAN TURN TO. HIS PHONE. A NEW SMARTPHONE APP JUST RELEASED THAT HELPS COLOR BLIND PEOPLE SEE WHAT THEY'VE BEEN MISSING. I CAN REALLY NOW THAT REALLY JUMPS OUT. Reporter: THE DAN CAM IS AN ADJUSTABLE FILTER A USER CAN CUSTOMIZE TO COMPENSATE FOR HIS OR HER DEFISH SHEN. I IF YOU'RE COLOR-BLIND YOU REALLY JUST CANNOT TELL THAT RED FROM THAT GREEN. Reporter: DAN CAM IS NAMED FOR ITS DEVELOPER, DAN KA MIN SKI. A SECURITY EXPERT BY DAY, HE SAYS HE BUILT THE APP TO HELP A FRIEND WHO IS COLOR-BLIND AND FRANKLY SHOCKED BY HOW MANY PEOPLE HE ENDED UP HELPING. PEOPLE ARE TELLING ME THEY'RE IN TEARS. IF YOU'RE NOT COLOR-BLIND YOU MAY BE WONDERING WHY YOU SHOULD CARE ABOUT AN APP LIKE THIS. IT'S AN EXAMPLE OF WHERE MOBILE TECHNOLOGY IS HEADING. WHAT STARTED OUT AS A WAY TO LISTEN TO MUSIC OR PLAY GAMES IS TURNING OUT TO BE SO MUCH MORE, AND WE'RE JUST AT THE BEGINNING OF THE REVOLUTION. THIS MOBILE DEVICE IS SOLVING PROBLEMS IN WAYS WE COULD NEVER EVEN THINK OF DOING BEFORE. Reporter: RADHA BASU IS WITH SANTA CLARA UNIVERSITY CENTER FOR SCIENCE, IT TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY. SHE POINTS TO APPS THAT TURN MOBILE FOENS INTO MICRO SCOPES, HEART MONITORING, HEARING AIDS, ONES THAT HELP BLIND PEOPLE NAV DATE CITY STREETS. TRULY LIFE SAVCHANGING APPLICATIONS. PROBLEMS OF SOCIETY WE NEVER THOUGHT WE COULD SOLVE BEFORE, THAT IS STARTING TO GET ADDRESSED. Reporter: AND STARTING, SHE SAYS, IS THE KEY WORD. IT'S A MATTER OF TIME BEFORE TECHNOLOGY HELPS ALL OF US SEE THE WORLD AROUND US A LITTLE DIFFERENTLY. GARVIN THOMAS, NBC BAY AREA NEWS. I HAVE A LOT OF APPS ON MY PHONE BUT ONE THAT CANNOT REPLACE YOU. REALLY? THERE'S APPS FOR EVERYTHING, THOUGH. MOBILE ROB. YOU NEED A FOG HORN APP. THIS MORNING IT IS SOUPY OUTSIDE. SEE THAT'S THE VIEW FROM SAN BRUNO MOUNTAIN DOWN TO SAN FRANCISCO. CHECKING SFO AIRPORT, GROUND DELAY PROGRAM IN EFFECT FOR ARRIVING FLIGHTS FROM 8:30 TO 1:00 THIS AFTERNOON. AIRPORT OPERATIONS PROBABLY GOING TO BE IMPACTED INTO THE AFTERNOON. BAY AREA WIDE WE'RE LOOKING AT VISIBILITY DOWN TO A QUARTER MILE OR LESS HOUR BY HOUR. SEE BY LUNCH TIME, THE AREAS IN YELLOW WE'RE EXPECTING THE FOG TO BREAK UP AROUND THE SOUTH BAY AROUND MIDDAY. HEAD THROUGH 3:00, MID 60s IN SAN JOSE BUT INLAND PROBABLY HAVE SOME 50s AND 60s FOR HIGHS OUT TOWARDS SOLANO COUNTY AND THE DELTA. DRY TODAY, CAN WE KEEP THIS GOING FOR THE NEXT FEW DAYS? A LOOK AT THE SEVEN-DAY FORECAST COMING UP IN A FEW MINUTES. THANK YOU VERY MUCH, ROB.

Jan. 16--When Chinese President Hu Jintao visits Washington this week, President Barack Obama is almost certain to present him with a litany of complaints from Silicon Valley ranging from China's trade protectionism to its intellectual property violations.

The visit, which will include the Obama administration's third state dinner, spotlights the complex relationship between two countries increasingly at odds over economic and geopolitical issues -- yet also deeply dependent on each other.

"There is a level of urgency and anxiety attached to U.S.-China relations, both political and on the business side," said Shelley Rigger, a China and Taiwan expert at Davidson College in North Carolina.

China owns $1 trillion in American bonds and manufactures many of the tech products designed by valley companies and other U.S. firms. But that U.S. dependence on China is offset by China's dependence on the United States as the largest market for its exports. Meanwhile, the United States needs China to help solve such crises as North Korea's nuclear threat, yet China is flexing its growing political and military muscles and increasingly challenging the United States in areas such as its support of Taiwan, the democratically governed island that Beijing insists is a renegade province.

In the midst of this complex relationship, U.S. companies lured to China in hopes of capitalizing on its growing middle class -- the country now has the largest Internet and

mobile-phone markets in the world -- complain that the Chinese government has created rules that unfairly favor domestic companies.

"Companies are asking for a more level playing field," said Rep. Mike Honda, D-San Jose.

The list of grievances is long: Chinese currency manipulation; pressures on multinational companies to give up their tech blueprints to local firms that in turn become global competitors; policies that force Internet companies to censor online speech, which led Google to clash with government officials last year, damaging its long-term business prospects in the country; and rampant piracy of products such as software, which industry experts say costs foreign companies more than $7 billion a year in lost revenue.

The Obama administration is also investigating U.S. industry complaints that China's subsidies of its wind, solar and electric car industries violate World Trade Organization rules -- a dispute whose outcome has huge implications for the valley's rapidly growing cleantech industry.

"The U.S.-China relationship is the definition of 'frenemies,' " Rigger said. "The Chinese government is in a much stronger position than it was in the past. The balance of power hasn't shifted to China, but it's much more even now. And that's made the relationship more complicated."

For the most part, the Obama administration gets good marks from the U.S. tech industry for aggressively engaging China, now the world's second-largest economy, on an array of issues.

For example, in 2009, foreign computer makers, including Palo Alto-based Hewlett-Packard, were ordered to preload Web-filtering software named "Green Dam" to block pornography and banned political sites on all new computers sold in China. After a domestic uproar -- and pressure from U.S. representatives -- the Chinese government set aside the requirement.

"I don't think anybody thinks the challenges have been solved," said one former official in the Bush administration who did not want to be identified because of the sensitivity of relations with China. "But I don't think anyone is thinking this administration is making errors in its approach."

He added: "China is the best of trading partners and the worst of trading partners. Tech companies love the market opportunities but fear the persistent mercantilism."

The overarching economic dispute between the two countries is the value of the Chinese currency, the yuan, which U.S. officials say is kept artificially low, making Chinese exports to the United States cheap and U.S. exports to China expensive. That helped push the U.S. trade deficit with China to $252 billion in the first 11 months of 2010, experts say. China's currency policy also makes its labor cheaper, which encourages U.S. companies to ship jobs overseas.

"With this huge trade imbalance, it's clear they are not buying as many of our products as they could be. This is particularly true with computer equipment," said Anna Han, a Santa Clara University business law professor who advises U.S. companies operating in China.

The currency dispute is sure to be discussed during Hu's visit, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said.

"Every meeting I have been in with the president and the Chinese leaders, from President Hu Jintao to Premier Wen Jiabao, have always included those very frank discussions," he said.

Representatives of tech companies, though, say the focus on the Chinese currency sometimes overshadows other obstacles. For instance, China's government procurement policy directs officials to buy products that contain intellectual property developed and owned in China, a requirement known as "indigenous innovation" and one that could cost valley companies millions of dollars in contracts.

"There is a tendency to hold Chinese market access hostage in order to get foreign industry to agree to things they wouldn't normally agree to -- indigenous innovation (and) partnerships with domestic entities," said Matt Schruers, vice president of law and policy at the Computer & Communications Industry Association.

China has good reason to play by its own rules. While the country has experienced rapid economic growth over the past two decades, it still has hundreds of millions of citizens living in desperate poverty. Just as Obama is under pressure to create more jobs in the United States, China's leaders face pressure to foster strong domestic industries to help their people advance economically.

"The rules of the game were established by the U.S., the European countries and a handful of other countries," Rigger said. "Those who have played under those rules for decades are at a huge advantage. Do you seriously think if a country that enters the game with the ability to violate the rules with impunity wouldn't do that?"

In December, though, during high-level meetings in Washington known as the United States-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade, senior Chinese officials signed off on commercial agreements that included pledges to work harder to stop software piracy and other intellectual property violations. The Chinese delegation, headed by the country's top economic policy official, Wang Qishan, also indicated that the government would not mandate that national government agencies buy only technology designed in China, though no specific commitments were made.

China observers say negotiations with the country's leaders will continue to require a lot of finesse.

While it's essential to press China on issues important to the United States, the Obama administration also needs to nurture trust between the two sides, Honda said. As a potential template for deeper cooperation, he pointed to an agreement to create teams on both sides of the Pacific to study and share research on new energy technology forged in 2009.

"It helps to dispel distrust," he said.

Still, the Obama administration is braced for tough negotiations this week and beyond.

"With any type of mature or more complex business relationship, whether it's among the tech firms in Silicon Valley (or between China and the United States), there will be disputes," Locke said.

When Chinese President Hu Jintao visits Washington this week, President Barack Obama is almost certain to present him with a litany of complaints from Silicon Valley ranging from China's trade protectionism to its intellectual property violations.

The visit, which will include the Obama administration's third state dinner, spotlights the complex relationship between two countries increasingly at odds over economic and geopolitical issues -- yet also deeply dependent on each other.

"There is a level of urgency and anxiety attached to U.S.-China relations, both political and on the business side," said Shelley Rigger, a China and Taiwan expert at Davidson College in North Carolina.

China owns $1 trillion in American bonds and manufactures many of the tech products designed by valley companies and other U.S. firms. But that U.S. dependence on China is offset by China's dependence on the United States as the largest market for its exports. Meanwhile, the United States needs China to help solve such crises as North Korea's nuclear threat, yet China is flexing its growing political and military muscles and increasingly challenging the United States in areas such as its support of Taiwan, the democratically governed island that Beijing insists is a renegade province.

In the midst of this complex relationship, U.S. companies lured to China in hopes of capitalizing on its growing middle class -- the country now has the largest Internet and mobile-phone markets in the world -- complain that the Chinese government has created rules that unfairly favor domestic companies.

"Companies are asking for a more level playing field," Rep. Mike Honda, D-San Jose, said.

The list of grievances is long: Chinese currency manipulation; pressures on multinational companies to give up their tech blueprints to local firms that in turn become global competitors; policies that force Internet companies to censor online speech, which led Google to clash with government officials last year, damaging its long-term business prospects in the country; and rampant piracy of products such as software, which industry experts say costs foreign companies more than $7 billion a year in lost revenue.

The Obama administration is also investigating U.S. industry complaints that China's subsidies of its wind, solar and electric car industries violate World Trade Organization rules -- a dispute whose outcome has huge implications for the valley's rapidly growing cleantech industry.

"The U.S.-China relationship is the definition of 'frenemies,' " Rigger said. "The Chinese government is in a much stronger position than it was in the past. The balance of power hasn't shifted to China, but it's much more even now. And that's made the relationship more complicated."

For the most part, the Obama administration gets good marks from the U.S. tech industry for aggressively engaging China, now the world's second-largest economy, on an array of issues.

For example, in 2009, foreign computer makers, including Palo Alto-based Hewlett-Packard, were ordered to preload Web-filtering software named "Green Dam" to block pornography and banned political sites on all new computers sold in China. After a domestic uproar -- and pressure from U.S. representatives -- the Chinese government set aside the requirement.

"I don't think anybody thinks the challenges have been solved," said one former official in the Bush administration who did not want to be identified because of the sensitivity of relations with China. "But I don't think anyone is thinking this administration is making errors in its approach."

He added, "China is the best of trading partners and the worst of trading partners. Tech companies love the market opportunities but fear the persistent mercantilism."

The overarching economic dispute between the two countries is the value of the Chinese currency, the yuan, which U.S. officials say is kept artificially low, making Chinese exports to the United States cheap and U.S. exports to China expensive. That helped push the U.S. trade deficit with China to $252 billion in the first 11 months of 2010, experts say. China's currency policy also makes its labor cheaper, which encourages U.S. companies to ship jobs overseas.

"With this huge trade imbalance, it's clear they are not buying as many of our products as they could be. This is particularly true with computer equipment," said Anna Han, a Santa Clara University business law professor who advises U.S. companies operating in China.

The currency dispute is sure to be discussed during Hu's visit, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said.

"Every meeting I have been in with the president and the Chinese leaders, from President Hu Jintao to Premier Wen Jiabao, have always included those very frank discussions," he said.

Representatives of tech companies, though, say the focus on the Chinese currency sometimes overshadows other obstacles. For instance, China's government procurement policy directs officials to buy products that contain intellectual property developed and owned in China, a requirement known as "indigenous innovation" and one that could cost valley companies millions of dollars in contracts.

"There is a tendency to hold Chinese market access hostage in order to get foreign industry to agree to things they wouldn't normally agree to -- indigenous innovation (and) partnerships with domestic entities," said Matt Schruers, vice president of law and policy at the Computer & Communications Industry Association.

China has good reason to play by its own rules. While the country has experienced rapid economic growth over the past two decades, it still has hundreds of millions of its citizens living in desperate poverty. Just as Obama is under pressure to create more jobs in the United States, China's leaders face pressure to foster strong domestic industries to help their people advance economically.

"The rules of the game were established by the U.S., the European countries and a handful of other countries," Rigger said. "Those who have played under those rules for decades are at a huge advantage. Do you seriously think if a country that enters the game with the ability to violate the rules with impunity wouldn't do that?"

In December, though, during high-level meetings in Washington known as the United States-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade, senior Chinese officials signed off on commercial agreements that included pledges to work harder to stop software piracy and other intellectual property violations. The Chinese delegation, headed up by the country's top economic policy official, Wang Qishan, also indicated that the government would not mandate that national government agencies buy only technology designed in China, though no specific commitments were made.

China observers say negotiations with the country's leaders will continue to require a lot of finesse.

While it's essential to press China on issues important to the United States, the Obama administration also needs to nurture trust between the two sides, Honda said. As a potential template for deeper cooperation, he pointed to an agreement to create teams on both sides of the Pacific to study and share research on new energy technology forged in 2009.

"It helps to dispel distrust," he said.

Still, the Obama administration is braced for tough negotiations this week and beyond.

"With any type of mature or more complex business relationship, whether its among the tech firms in Silicon Valley (or between China and the United States), there will be disputes," Locke said.

Silicon Valley concerns in forefront during visit by China's president01/16/2011Daily Review, The

When Chinese President Hu Jintao visits Washington this week, President Barack Obama is almost certain to present him with a litany of complaints from Silicon Valley ranging from China's trade protectionism to its intellectual property violations.

The visit, which will include the Obama administration's third state dinner, spotlights the complex relationship between two countries increasingly at odds over economic and geopolitical issues -- yet also deeply dependent on each other.

"There is a level of urgency and anxiety attached to U.S.-China relations, both political and on the business side," said Shelley Rigger, a China and Taiwan expert at Davidson College in North Carolina.

China owns $1 trillion in American bonds and manufactures many of the tech products designed by valley companies and other U.S. firms. But that U.S. dependence on China is offset by China's dependence on the United States as the largest market for its exports. Meanwhile, the United States needs China to help solve such crises as North Korea's nuclear threat, yet China is flexing its growing political and military muscles and increasingly challenging the United States in areas such as its support of Taiwan, the democratically governed island that Beijing insists is a renegade province.

In the midst of this complex relationship, U.S. companies lured to China in hopes of capitalizing on its growing middle class -- the country now has the largest Internet and mobile-phone markets in the world -- complain that the Chinese government has created rules that unfairly favor domestic companies.

"Companies are asking for a more level playing field," Rep. Mike Honda, D-San Jose, said.

The list of grievances is long: Chinese currency manipulation; pressures on multinational companies to give up their tech blueprints to local firms that in turn become global competitors; policies that force Internet companies to censor online speech, which led Google to clash with government officials last year, damaging its long-term business prospects in the country; and rampant piracy of products such as software, which industry experts say costs foreign companies more than $7 billion a year in lost revenue.

The Obama administration is also investigating U.S. industry complaints that China's subsidies of its wind, solar and electric car industries violate World Trade Organization rules -- a dispute whose outcome has huge implications for the valley's rapidly growing cleantech industry.

"The U.S.-China relationship is the definition of 'frenemies,' " Rigger said. "The Chinese government is in a much stronger position than it was in the past. The balance of power hasn't shifted to China, but it's much more even now. And that's made the relationship more complicated."

For the most part, the Obama administration gets good marks from the U.S. tech industry for aggressively engaging China, now the world's second-largest economy, on an array of issues.

For example, in 2009, foreign computer makers, including Palo Alto-based Hewlett-Packard, were ordered to preload Web-filtering software named "Green Dam" to block pornography and banned political sites on all new computers sold in China. After a domestic uproar -- and pressure from U.S. representatives -- the Chinese government set aside the requirement.

"I don't think anybody thinks the challenges have been solved," said one former official in the Bush administration who did not want to be identified because of the sensitivity of relations with China. "But I don't think anyone is thinking this administration is making errors in its approach."

He added, "China is the best of trading partners and the worst of trading partners. Tech companies love the market opportunities but fear the persistent mercantilism."

The overarching economic dispute between the two countries is the value of the Chinese currency, the yuan, which U.S. officials say is kept artificially low, making Chinese exports to the United States cheap and U.S. exports to China expensive. That helped push the U.S. trade deficit with China to $252 billion in the first 11 months of 2010, experts say. China's currency policy also makes its labor cheaper, which encourages U.S. companies to ship jobs overseas.

"With this huge trade imbalance, it's clear they are not buying as many of our products as they could be. This is particularly true with computer equipment," said Anna Han, a Santa Clara University business law professor who advises U.S. companies operating in China.

The currency dispute is sure to be discussed during Hu's visit, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said.

"Every meeting I have been in with the president and the Chinese leaders, from President Hu Jintao to Premier Wen Jiabao, have always included those very frank discussions," he said.

Representatives of tech companies, though, say the focus on the Chinese currency sometimes overshadows other obstacles. For instance, China's government procurement policy directs officials to buy products that contain intellectual property developed and owned in China, a requirement known as "indigenous innovation" and one that could cost valley companies millions of dollars in contracts.

"There is a tendency to hold Chinese market access hostage in order to get foreign industry to agree to things they wouldn't normally agree to -- indigenous innovation (and) partnerships with domestic entities," said Matt Schruers, vice president of law and policy at the Computer & Communications Industry Association.

China has good reason to play by its own rules. While the country has experienced rapid economic growth over the past two decades, it still has hundreds of millions of its citizens living in desperate poverty. Just as Obama is under pressure to create more jobs in the United States, China's leaders face pressure to foster strong domestic industries to help their people advance economically.

"The rules of the game were established by the U.S., the European countries and a handful of other countries," Rigger said. "Those who have played under those rules for decades are at a huge advantage. Do you seriously think if a country that enters the game with the ability to violate the rules with impunity wouldn't do that?"

In December, though, during high-level meetings in Washington known as the United States-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade, senior Chinese officials signed off on commercial agreements that included pledges to work harder to stop software piracy and other intellectual property violations. The Chinese delegation, headed up by the country's top economic policy official, Wang Qishan, also indicated that the government would not mandate that national government agencies buy only technology designed in China, though no specific commitments were made.

China observers say negotiations with the country's leaders will continue to require a lot of finesse.

While it's essential to press China on issues important to the United States, the Obama administration also needs to nurture trust between the two sides, Honda said. As a potential template for deeper cooperation, he pointed to an agreement to create teams on both sides of the Pacific to study and share research on new energy technology forged in 2009.

"It helps to dispel distrust," he said.

Still, the Obama administration is braced for tough negotiations this week and beyond.

"With any type of mature or more complex business relationship, whether its among the tech firms in Silicon Valley (or between China and the United States), there will be disputes," Locke said.

Silicon Valley concerns in forefront during visit by China's president01/16/2011Argus, The

When Chinese President Hu Jintao visits Washington this week, President Barack Obama is almost certain to present him with a litany of complaints from Silicon Valley ranging from China's trade protectionism to its intellectual property violations.

The visit, which will include the Obama administration's third state dinner, spotlights the complex relationship between two countries increasingly at odds over economic and geopolitical issues -- yet also deeply dependent on each other.

"There is a level of urgency and anxiety attached to U.S.-China relations, both political and on the business side," said Shelley Rigger, a China and Taiwan expert at Davidson College in North Carolina.

China owns $1 trillion in American bonds and manufactures many of the tech products designed by valley companies and other U.S. firms. But that U.S. dependence on China is offset by China's dependence on the United States as the largest market for its exports. Meanwhile, the United States needs China to help solve such crises as North Korea's nuclear threat, yet China is flexing its growing political and military muscles and increasingly challenging the United States in areas such as its support of Taiwan, the democratically governed island that Beijing insists is a renegade province.

In the midst of this complex relationship, U.S. companies lured to China in hopes of capitalizing on its growing middle class -- the country now has the largest Internet and mobile-phone markets in the world -- complain that the Chinese government has created rules that unfairly favor domestic companies.

"Companies are asking for a more level playing field," Rep. Mike Honda, D-San Jose, said.

The list of grievances is long: Chinese currency manipulation; pressures on multinational companies to give up their tech blueprints to local firms that in turn become global competitors; policies that force Internet companies to censor online speech, which led Google to clash with government officials last year, damaging its long-term business prospects in the country; and rampant piracy of products such as software, which industry experts say costs foreign companies more than $7 billion a year in lost revenue.

The Obama administration is also investigating U.S. industry complaints that China's subsidies of its wind, solar and electric car industries violate World Trade Organization rules -- a dispute whose outcome has huge implications for the valley's rapidly growing cleantech industry.

"The U.S.-China relationship is the definition of 'frenemies,' " Rigger said. "The Chinese government is in a much stronger position than it was in the past. The balance of power hasn't shifted to China, but it's much more even now. And that's made the relationship more complicated."

For the most part, the Obama administration gets good marks from the U.S. tech industry for aggressively engaging China, now the world's second-largest economy, on an array of issues.

For example, in 2009, foreign computer makers, including Palo Alto-based Hewlett-Packard, were ordered to preload Web-filtering software named "Green Dam" to block pornography and banned political sites on all new computers sold in China. After a domestic uproar -- and pressure from U.S. representatives -- the Chinese government set aside the requirement.

"I don't think anybody thinks the challenges have been solved," said one former official in the Bush administration who did not want to be identified because of the sensitivity of relations with China. "But I don't think anyone is thinking this administration is making errors in its approach."

He added, "China is the best of trading partners and the worst of trading partners. Tech companies love the market opportunities but fear the persistent mercantilism."

The overarching economic dispute between the two countries is the value of the Chinese currency, the yuan, which U.S. officials say is kept artificially low, making Chinese exports to the United States cheap and U.S. exports to China expensive. That helped push the U.S. trade deficit with China to $252 billion in the first 11 months of 2010, experts say. China's currency policy also makes its labor cheaper, which encourages U.S. companies to ship jobs overseas.

"With this huge trade imbalance, it's clear they are not buying as many of our products as they could be. This is particularly true with computer equipment," said Anna Han, a Santa Clara University business law professor who advises U.S. companies operating in China.

The currency dispute is sure to be discussed during Hu's visit, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said.

"Every meeting I have been in with the president and the Chinese leaders, from President Hu Jintao to Premier Wen Jiabao, have always included those very frank discussions," he said.

Representatives of tech companies, though, say the focus on the Chinese currency sometimes overshadows other obstacles. For instance, China's government procurement policy directs officials to buy products that contain intellectual property developed and owned in China, a requirement known as "indigenous innovation" and one that could cost valley companies millions of dollars in contracts.

"There is a tendency to hold Chinese market access hostage in order to get foreign industry to agree to things they wouldn't normally agree to -- indigenous innovation (and) partnerships with domestic entities," said Matt Schruers, vice president of law and policy at the Computer & Communications Industry Association.

China has good reason to play by its own rules. While the country has experienced rapid economic growth over the past two decades, it still has hundreds of millions of its citizens living in desperate poverty. Just as Obama is under pressure to create more jobs in the United States, China's leaders face pressure to foster strong domestic industries to help their people advance economically.

"The rules of the game were established by the U.S., the European countries and a handful of other countries," Rigger said. "Those who have played under those rules for decades are at a huge advantage. Do you seriously think if a country that enters the game with the ability to violate the rules with impunity wouldn't do that?"

In December, though, during high-level meetings in Washington known as the United States-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade, senior Chinese officials signed off on commercial agreements that included pledges to work harder to stop software piracy and other intellectual property violations. The Chinese delegation, headed up by the country's top economic policy official, Wang Qishan, also indicated that the government would not mandate that national government agencies buy only technology designed in China, though no specific commitments were made.

China observers say negotiations with the country's leaders will continue to require a lot of finesse.

While it's essential to press China on issues important to the United States, the Obama administration also needs to nurture trust between the two sides, Honda said. As a potential template for deeper cooperation, he pointed to an agreement to create teams on both sides of the Pacific to study and share research on new energy technology forged in 2009.

"It helps to dispel distrust," he said.

Still, the Obama administration is braced for tough negotiations this week and beyond.

"With any type of mature or more complex business relationship, whether its among the tech firms in Silicon Valley (or between China and the United States), there will be disputes," Locke said.

When Chinese President Hu Jintao visits Washington this week, President Barack Obama is almost certain to present him with a litany of complaints from Silicon Valley ranging from China's trade protectionism to its intellectual property violations.

The visit, which will include the Obama administration's third state dinner, spotlights the complex relationship between two countries increasingly at odds over economic and geopolitical issues -- yet also deeply dependent on each other.

"There is a level of urgency and anxiety attached to U.S.-China relations, both political and on the business side," said Shelley Rigger, a China and Taiwan expert at Davidson College in North Carolina.

China owns $1 trillion in American bonds and manufactures many of the tech products designed by valley companies and other U.S. firms. But that U.S. dependence on China is offset by China's dependence on the United States as the largest market for its exports. Meanwhile, the United States needs China to help solve such crises as North Korea's nuclear threat, yet China is flexing its growing political and military muscles and increasingly challenging the United States in areas such as its support of Taiwan, the democratically governed island that Beijing insists is a renegade province.

In the midst of this complex relationship, U.S. companies lured to China in hopes of capitalizing on its growing middle class -- the country now has the largest Internet and mobile-phone markets in the world -- complain that the Chinese government has created rules that unfairly favor domestic companies.

"Companies are asking for a more level playing field," Rep. Mike Honda, D-San Jose, said.

The list of grievances is long: Chinese currency manipulation; pressures on multinational companies to give up their tech blueprints to local firms that in turn become global competitors; policies that force Internet companies to censor online speech, which led Google to clash with government officials last year, damaging its long-term business prospects in the country; and rampant piracy of products such as software, which industry experts say costs foreign companies more than $7 billion a year in lost revenue.

The Obama administration is also investigating U.S. industry complaints that China's subsidies of its wind, solar and electric car industries violate World Trade Organization rules -- a dispute whose outcome has huge implications for the valley's rapidly growing cleantech industry.

"The U.S.-China relationship is the definition of 'frenemies,' " Rigger said. "The Chinese government is in a much stronger position than it was in the past. The balance of power hasn't shifted to China, but it's much more even now. And that's made the relationship more complicated."

For the most part, the Obama administration gets good marks from the U.S. tech industry for aggressively engaging China, now the world's second-largest economy, on an array of issues.

For example, in 2009, foreign computer makers, including Palo Alto-based Hewlett-Packard, were ordered to preload Web-filtering software named "Green Dam" to block pornography and banned political sites on all new computers sold in China. After a domestic uproar -- and pressure from U.S. representatives -- the Chinese government set aside the requirement.

"I don't think anybody thinks the challenges have been solved," said one former official in the Bush administration who did not want to be identified because of the sensitivity of relations with China. "But I don't think anyone is thinking this administration is making errors in its approach."

He added, "China is the best of trading partners and the worst of trading partners. Tech companies love the market opportunities but fear the persistent mercantilism."

The overarching economic dispute between the two countries is the value of the Chinese currency, the yuan, which U.S. officials say is kept artificially low, making Chinese exports to the United States cheap and U.S. exports to China expensive. That helped push the U.S. trade deficit with China to $252 billion in the first 11 months of 2010, experts say. China's currency policy also makes its labor cheaper, which encourages U.S. companies to ship jobs overseas.

"With this huge trade imbalance, it's clear they are not buying as many of our products as they could be. This is particularly true with computer equipment," said Anna Han, a Santa Clara University business law professor who advises U.S. companies operating in China.

The currency dispute is sure to be discussed during Hu's visit, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said.

"Every meeting I have been in with the president and the Chinese leaders, from President Hu Jintao to Premier Wen Jiabao, have always included those very frank discussions," he said.

Representatives of tech companies, though, say the focus on the Chinese currency sometimes overshadows other obstacles. For instance, China's government procurement policy directs officials to buy products that contain intellectual property developed and owned in China, a requirement known as "indigenous innovation" and one that could cost valley companies millions of dollars in contracts.

"There is a tendency to hold Chinese market access hostage in order to get foreign industry to agree to things they wouldn't normally agree to -- indigenous innovation (and) partnerships with domestic entities," said Matt Schruers, vice president of law and policy at the Computer & Communications Industry Association.

China has good reason to play by its own rules. While the country has experienced rapid economic growth over the past two decades, it still has hundreds of millions of its citizens living in desperate poverty. Just as Obama is under pressure to create more jobs in the United States, China's leaders face pressure to foster strong domestic industries to help their people advance economically.

"The rules of the game were established by the U.S., the European countries and a handful of other countries," Rigger said. "Those who have played under those rules for decades are at a huge advantage. Do you seriously think if a country that enters the game with the ability to violate the rules with impunity wouldn't do that?"

In December, though, during high-level meetings in Washington known as the United States-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade, senior Chinese officials signed off on commercial agreements that included pledges to work harder to stop software piracy and other intellectual property violations. The Chinese delegation, headed up by the country's top economic policy official, Wang Qishan, also indicated that the government would not mandate that national government agencies buy only technology designed in China, though no specific commitments were made.

China observers say negotiations with the country's leaders will continue to require a lot of finesse.

While it's essential to press China on issues important to the United States, the Obama administration also needs to nurture trust between the two sides, Honda said. As a potential template for deeper cooperation, he pointed to an agreement to create teams on both sides of the Pacific to study and share research on new energy technology forged in 2009.

"It helps to dispel distrust," he said.

Still, the Obama administration is braced for tough negotiations this week and beyond.

"With any type of mature or more complex business relationship, whether its among the tech firms in Silicon Valley (or between China and the United States), there will be disputes," Locke said.

When Chinese President Hu Jintao visits Washington this week, President Barack Obama is almost certain to present him with a litany of complaints from Silicon Valley ranging from China's trade protectionism to its intellectual property violations.

The visit, which will include the Obama administration's third state dinner, spotlights the complex relationship between two countries increasingly at odds over economic and geopolitical issues -- yet also deeply dependent on each other.

"There is a level of urgency and anxiety attached to U.S.-China relations, both political and on the business side," said Shelley Rigger, a China and Taiwan expert at Davidson College in North Carolina.

China owns $1 trillion in American bonds and manufactures many of the tech products designed by valley companies and other U.S. firms. But that U.S. dependence on China is offset by China's dependence on the United States as the largest market for its exports. Meanwhile, the United States needs China to help solve such crises as North Korea's nuclear threat, yet China is flexing its growing political and military muscles and increasingly challenging the United States in areas such as its support of Taiwan, the democratically governed island that Beijing insists is a renegade province.

In the midst of this complex relationship, U.S. companies lured to China in hopes of capitalizing on its growing middle class -- the country now has the largest Internet and mobile-phone markets in the world -- complain that the Chinese government has created rules that unfairly favor domestic companies.

"Companies are asking for a more level playing field," said Rep. Mike Honda, D-San Jose.

The list of grievances is long: Chinese currency manipulation; pressures on multinational companies to give up their tech blueprints to local firms that in turn become global competitors; policies that force Internet companies to censor online speech, which led Google to clash with government officials last year, damaging its long-term business prospects in the country; and rampant piracy of products such as software, which industry experts say costs foreign companies more than $7 billion a year in lost revenue.

The Obama administration is also investigating U.S. industry complaints that China's subsidies of its wind, solar and electric car industries violate World Trade Organization rules -- a dispute whose outcome has huge implications for the valley's rapidly growing cleantech industry.

"The U.S.-China relationship is the definition of 'frenemies,'" Rigger said. "The Chinese government is in a much stronger position than it was in the past. The balance of power hasn't shifted to China, but it's much more even now. And that's made the relationship more complicated."

For the most part, the Obama administration gets good marks from the U.S. tech industry for aggressively engaging China, now the world's second-largest economy, on an array of issues.

For example, in 2009, foreign computer makers, including Palo Alto-based Hewlett-Packard, were ordered to preload Web-filtering software named "Green Dam" to block pornography and banned political sites on all new computers sold in China. After a domestic uproar -- and pressure from U.S. representatives -- the Chinese government set aside the requirement.

"I don't think anybody thinks the challenges have been solved," said one former official in the Bush administration who did not want to be identified because of the sensitivity of relations with China. "But I don't think anyone is thinking this administration is making errors in its approach."

He added: "China is the best of trading partners and the worst of trading partners. Tech companies love the market opportunities but fear the persistent mercantilism."

The overarching economic dispute between the two countries is the value of the Chinese currency, the yuan, which U.S. officials say is kept artificially low, making Chinese exports to the United States cheap and U.S. exports to China expensive. That helped push the U.S. trade deficit with China to $252 billion in the first 11 months of 2010, experts say. China's currency policy also makes its labor cheaper, which encourages U.S. companies to ship jobs overseas.

"With this huge trade imbalance, it's clear they are not buying as many of our products as they could be. This is particularly true with computer equipment," said Anna Han, a Santa Clara University business law professor who advises U.S. companies operating in China.

The currency dispute is sure to be discussed during Hu's visit, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said.

"Every meeting I have been in with the president and the Chinese leaders, from President Hu Jintao to Premier Wen Jiabao, have always included those very frank discussions," he said.

Representatives of tech companies, though, say the focus on the Chinese currency sometimes overshadows other obstacles. For instance, China's government procurement policy directs officials to buy products that contain intellectual property developed and owned in China, a requirement known as "indigenous innovation" and one that could cost valley companies millions of dollars in contracts.

"There is a tendency to hold Chinese market access hostage in order to get foreign industry to agree to things they wouldn't normally agree to -- indigenous innovation (and) partnerships with domestic entities," said Matt Schruers, vice president of law and policy at the Computer & Communications Industry Association.

China has good reason to play by its own rules. While the country has experienced rapid economic growth over the past two decades, it still has hundreds of millions of citizens living in desperate poverty. Just as Obama is under pressure to create more jobs in the United States, China's leaders face pressure to foster strong domestic industries to help their people advance economically.

"The rules of the game were established by the U.S., the European countries and a handful of other countries," Rigger said. "Those who have played under those rules for decades are at a huge advantage. Do you seriously think if a country that enters the game with the ability to violate the rules with impunity wouldn't do that?"

In December, though, during high-level meetings in Washington known as the United States-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade, senior Chinese officials signed off on commercial agreements that included pledges to work harder to stop software piracy and other intellectual property violations. The Chinese delegation, headed by the country's top economic policy official, Wang Qishan, also indicated that the government would not mandate that national government agencies buy only technology designed in China, though no specific commitments were made.

China observers say negotiations with the country's leaders will continue to require a lot of finesse.

While it's essential to press China on issues important to the United States, the Obama administration also needs to nurture trust between the two sides, Honda said. As a potential template for deeper cooperation, he pointed to an agreement to create teams on both sides of the Pacific to study and share research on new energy technology forged in 2009.

"It helps to dispel distrust," he said.

Still, the Obama administration is braced for tough negotiations this week and beyond.

"With any type of mature or more complex business relationship, whether it's among the tech firms in Silicon Valley (or between China and the United States), there will be disputes," Locke said.

Bella Sorella's ethereal music, stage presence and personal story has earned them acclaim and recognition throughout the United States and abroad.

Bella Sorella officially formed in fall 2005 but has been years in the making. Their self-produced debut CD is titled “Popera.”

With music that spans more than 300 years and seven languages, Bella Sorella has performed throughout California at dozens of venues, including Villa Montalvo, the Empire Plush Room, El Campanil Theatre, Community Concerts Concord, AT&T Park, Santa Clara University, San José State University, the San José Italian Festa, the San Diego Indie Music Fest, Lyceum Theater, Cal State Fullerton, La Jolla Athenaeum, Ridgecrest, Bishop, Arroyo Grande, and Poway. Abroad the ensemble traveled to Nagoya, Japan, where they were featured musicians at the Villaggio Italia's Primavera Festival.

The Los Angeles Music Awards unanimously selected Bella Sorella as the 2007 Vocal Group of the Year.

Bella Sorella's music reflects the love and friendship Nova and Susanna share. Fate brought them together as roommates during their freshman year at University of the Pacific Conservatory of Music in Stockton, Calif. The two discovered their vocal chemistry when they began spontaneously singing songs with two-part harmony as a break from long hours of study.

The marriage of Nova's and Susanna's voices mirrors their personal life. Nova and Susanna married brothers, hence the name, Bella Sorella, or, “Beautiful Sister.”

Five years ago, Eric Goldman, an associate professor at the Santa Clara University School of Law and widely read tech law blogger, predicted that Wikipedia would fail within five years.

"[T]he very architecture of Wikipedia contains the seeds of its own destruction," he wrote when he revisited his argument

in 2006. "Without fame or fortune, I don't think Wikipedia's incentive system is sustainable."

Goldman expanded on this argument in a 2009 academic paper,

"Wikipedia's Labor Squeeze and its Consequences." In it, he argued that Wikipedia will not be able to sustain credible content while simultaneously allowing anyone to freely edit it. Despite the site's efforts to combat vandalism, he said, limited incentives to participate would force the site to limit public editing rights.

Yet Wikipedia is set to celebrate its tenth anniversary on Saturday, January 15. The site went live on Monday, January 15, 2001. It's difficult to gauge whether the community edited encyclopedia has achieved sufficient fame to survive. If fame can me measured by Web site visits, Wikipedia appears to have more than enough: The site, together with its sister sites, receives some 400 million visitors every month, making it the fifth most popular Web site in the world.

Wikipedia has also done pretty well in terms of fortune. In 2009, it raised about $8 million from over 240,000 donors. In 2010, it raised about $16 million and received a $2 million grant from Google.

Wikipedia has addressed some of the concerns raised by Goldman. For example, last May, it announced a project to improve the quality of its public policy articles, supported by a $1.2 million grant from the Stanton Foundation. And its antispam tools have been improved.

On Friday, Goldman conceded that the future had not gone as he had anticipated. "I've written a few notorious posts in my 6 years of blogging, but none more so than my December 2005 prediction that Wikipedia would fail in 5 years,"

he wrote. "Those 5 years are up, and this post admits that my prediction is wrong."

At the same time, his argument bears ongoing consideration. Wikipedia is not out of the woods and may never be. Its very nature seems to require constant attention.

Goldman isn't entirely ready to pronounce Wikipedia out of harm's way. "I may not have gotten the timing right, but I wonder if [diminished editing freedom] remains inevitable," he muses.

Rather than being overwhelmed by vandalism, Wikipedia has managed to remain one of the more vital, if not always 100% accurate, sources of information online.

Five years ago, Eric Goldman, an associate professor at the Santa Clara University School of Law and widely read tech law blogger, predicted that Wikipedia

would fail within five years.

"[T]he very architecture of Wikipedia contains the seeds of its own destruction," he wrote when he revisited his argument

in 2006. "Without fame or fortune, I don't think Wikipedia's incentive system is sustainable."

More Security Insights

White Papers

Goldman expanded on this argument in a 2009 academic paper,

"Wikipedia's Labor Squeeze and its Consequences." In it, he argued that Wikipedia will not be able to sustain credible content while simultaneously allowing anyone to freely edit it. Despite the site's efforts to combat vandalism, he said, limited incentives to participate would force the site to limit public editing rights.

Yet Wikipedia is set to celebrate its tenth anniversary on Saturday, January 15. The site went live on Monday, January 15, 2001. It's difficult to gauge whether the community edited encyclopedia has achieved sufficient fame to survive. If fame can me measured by Web site visits, Wikipedia appears to have more than enough: The site, together with its sister sites, receives some 400 million visitors every month, making it the fifth most popular Web site in the world.

3/0/5242

Wikipedia has also done pretty well in terms of fortune. In 2009, it raised about $8 million from over 240,000 donors. In 2010, it raised about $16 million and received a $2 million grant from Google.

Wikipedia has addressed some of the concerns raised by Goldman. For example, last May, it announced a project to improve the quality of its public policy articles, supported by a $1.2 million grant from the Stanton Foundation. And its antispam tools have been improved.

On Friday, Goldman conceded that the future had not gone as he had anticipated. "I've written a few notorious posts in my 6 years of blogging, but none more so than my December 2005 prediction that Wikipedia would fail in 5 years,"

he wrote. "Those 5 years are up, and this post admits that my prediction is wrong."

At the same time, his argument bears ongoing consideration. Wikipedia is not out of the woods and may never be. Its very nature seems to require constant attention.

Goldman isn't entirely ready to pronounce Wikipedia out of harm's way. "I may not have gotten the timing right, but I wonder if [diminished editing freedom] remains inevitable," he muses.

Get up to speed on IT innovations in cloud computing, virtualization, security, and more at Interop Las Vegas, May 8-12. .

The recent shootings in Tucson, AZ a week ago resulting in the deaths of 6 victims and injuries to 14 more including Representative Gabrielle Gifford (D) has resulted in an intense national discourse during about the vitriol in political debate. Many have called for more civility. Others have adamantly stated that since we have no understanding of the motives of the murderer we shouldn't blame the tone of political debate as having anything to do with this heinous crime. Who knows why this individual decided to try and assassinate this particular congresswoman and then turned his semi-automatic weapon upon the gathered crowd? Was he responding to political vitriol? Was he experiencing a severe psychotic disorder with command hallucinations to kill? Was he just trying to get attention and become somebody famous like so many others who have tried to assassinate political figures and celebrities in the past? Regardless of his motivations doesn't it just make good sense that we should work hard, very hard, to be more civil to one another even when we disagree about politics and other matters?

Search for a mental health professional near you.

One would think that after thousands of years living in social clans, humans would have developed excellent strategies to get along with each other. In fact, we have! The religious, psychological, and philosophical communities and traditions offer much wisdom on this issue. Too bad we tend to ignore it.

For example, in my book, Do the Right Thing: Living Ethically in an Unethical World [http://www.newharbinger.com/bookstore/productdetails.cfm?PC=287], I review these approaches and distill them to 5 easy to remember words for living: Respect, Responsibility, Integrity, Competence, and Concern (RRICC). Easier said than done for sure.

It is terribly disheartening in my view that people with different points of view on politics (and other topics as well such as religion) can't find a reasonable way to discuss their views without name calling, screaming, and demonizing those who hold different points of view. Curiously, sometimes those who claim to be the most moral or religious scream the very loudest. If we are going to in our communities regarding getting along together we really do need to work hard (very, very, very hard) to be civil, respectful, polite, and attentive to the views and feelings of others. In the RRICC model mentioned above, we really need to be respectful and have concerns for others. We shouldn't need a national tragedy to remind ourselves that civility should be expected in public and private discourse. In fact, perhaps incivility just shouldn't be tolerated.

Perhaps reminding ourselves of the importance of treating others with respect, kindness, and civility might be at least something positive that could emerge from this terrible event.

There is great wisdom in the Golden Rule (i.e., treat others as you wish to be treated) which is supported and articulated in all of the religious traditions and in moral philosophy as well. It we treat others as we wish to be treated we would not only be civil to each other but we would likely be loving and kind as well. Maybe this could be one thing that the various political parties and others could agree on to make a better world for us all. Would it be wonderful if Democrats, Republicans, Tea Party, Coffee Party, FOX news, MSNBC, and everyone else and in between signed a civility oath?

What do you think? Am I dreaming?

On this MLK weekend, this is my dream.

Thomas Plante, PhD., ABPP is Professor of Psychology and Director of the Spirituality and Health Institute at Santa Clara University.

Private Stock Deals Are That Way for a Reason | View Clip01/15/2011Houma Courier - Online

Private share offerings occur every week in the United States. By one estimate, they are nearly as common as public security sales.

But news that Goldman Sachs would sell private shares in Facebook, the world's largest social networking site and a private company, was met with some criticism that the offering was only open to the richest of the rich.

But that is the audience for all these private offerings. In reality, they are the only people who could — and should — invest in such high-risk private deals. Sure, the deals might offer phenomenal returns, but they might also be worthless. Only the wealthy can absorb that level of loss.

The private offerings “are often narrow or targeted investments,” said David Bailin, global head of managed investments at Citi Private Bank. “It's a highly concentrated investment, probably not that liquid, but it's how it's designed.”

Yet both advisers and academics said the bigger issue with private placements was being overlooked in the hoopla over Goldman and Facebook — that private placements were not intended to be liquid like public securities, and people who thought otherwise could face unexpected losses.

Whether or not you were able to get into the Facebook offering, here is a look at the state of the private market and the risks inherent in it.

They are not required to have extensive disclosures, though many have prospectuses that rival public offerings in detail. But the allure is always the same: access to something that could offer high returns in exchange for high risk.

“We do these all the time with hedge funds and private equity, and they're no different than what Goldman is doing with Facebook,” said Tony Roth, head of investment strategy and wealth planning at UBS. “We're just giving them more information” than Goldman gave out on the Facebook offering.

On the contrary, John C. Coffee Jr., a professor at Columbia University Law School and director of its Center on Corporate Governance, said he found the information Goldman gave clients to be more than adequate. “They gave investors a 100-page memorandum, which they're not obligated to do,” he said.

Much has been said about the high fees that Goldman is charging for the Facebook deal — a 4 percent placement fee and 5 percent of gains. A more standard placement fee is 1 to 2 percent. But Goldman has disclosed those fees, and investors can decide if they want to pay it and invest.

So what is the allure of the deal, since the profitability has been roundly questioned? Meir Statman, professor of finance at Santa Clara University and author of “What Investors Really Want” (McGraw-Hill, 2010), said people willing to invest in the Facebook offering were being lured by the “attraction of status.” He said investing in an offering with such a high, $2 million minimum investment conveyed to others that the investor was wealthy, just as hanging a Picasso in your house is more than a way to cover wall space.

“You won't go out and tell people you invest for status, but you will go out and tell them that you're a socially responsible investor,” Mr. Statman said. “It's neither part of risk or return assessment, but some people care very deeply about it and they're willing to give up return for it.”

AUDIENCE Private placements certainly are not for every investor. Nor should they be.

But the risk is that people who do not have enough wealth to absorb the potential losses are able to invest in them. To be considered an “accredited investor” by the Securities and Exchange Commission, a person either has to have a net worth of $1 million or an annual income in excess of $200,000 ($300,000 for couples) over the last two years. Mr. Coffee said there was a provision in the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill to increase these limits, but it was removed.

This was a risky deletion because the minimum to get into any private placement is $250,000. In theory, an accredited investor with $1 million in the bank could be investing alongside someone with $100 million. But losing that $250,000 investment is going to mean different things to those two people.

“If someone is worth $30 million and they spend $2 million on the Facebook deal and it goes to zero, you still have bread and butter on your table,” Mr. Statman said. “If I have $2 million and put it all in it, that would be stupid.”

Beyond status, there are rational reasons to go into or avoid a private placement.

It could be a good investment if the manager of the offering could exert control over the company's direction, Mr. Bailin said. This is something that venture capital companies do all the time, though it is hard to imagine that Goldman will have much say in what Facebook does now.

On the other hand, a lack of transparency and high fees may be reason to avoid a private offering. “A lot of these things tend to be very sexy, but there is a high cost, high illiquidity and a high level of uncertainty about the final outcome,” Mr. Roth said.

FALSE ASSUMPTIONS The real risk is not that the investment in Facebook or any private placement goes down — or even to zero. This happens with public securities, too. The risk is in the false confidence investors may have that they can sell their private investment early.

Firms like Felix Investments, Second Market and SharesPost bill themselves as secondary markets for private investments. Under normal market conditions, they match buyers and sellers like any exchange. The problem arises when a private company comes under duress and the buyers disappear.

“On the N.Y.S.E. or the Nasdaq, the specialists have to stay in the market,” Mr. Coffee said. “The price changes but you can still sell it. With private placements, people may be locked into a sinking ship.”

While the initial offerings are limited to a select group of investors, there is growing concern about who the buyers are in these secondary markets. This week on the SharesPost Web site, the Facebook offering was trading up nearly 15 percent, giving the company a value of $53.65 billion.

Yet there was one buyer on the site looking to buy 365 shares at $70 a share, or at an implied valuation of $158 billion. The cost of those shares was only $25,550, and that, of course, is the risk.

A less wealthy accredited investor could buy those shares on a private exchange without any help in assessing the risk involved and lose all the money. Yet that is an inherent risk in the private market.

“Almost as many securities are sold in private placements as in public offerings,” Mr. Coffee said. “All of those companies you know in Silicon Valley did it through private placements. And the people who waited it out found that maybe one in three made a 500 percent return.”

The corollary to that is two out of three probably never came to market, which is why investing in such private offerings is like an amateur skiing a double black diamond run: sometimes even the experts do not make it down.

Private Stock Deals Are That Way for a Reason01/15/2011New York Times, The

Private share offerings occur every week in the United States. By one estimate, they are nearly as common as public security sales.

But news that Goldman Sachs would sell private shares in Facebook, the world's largest social networking site and a private company, was met with some criticism that the offering was only open to the richest of the rich.

But that is the audience for all these private offerings. In reality, they are the only people who could -- and should -- invest in such high-risk private deals. Sure, the deals might offer phenomenal returns, but they might also be worthless. Only the wealthy can absorb that level of loss.

The private offerings ''are often narrow or targeted investments,'' said David Bailin, global head of managed investments at Citi Private Bank. ''It's a highly concentrated investment, probably not that liquid, but it's how it's designed.''

Yet both advisers and academics said the bigger issue with private placements was being overlooked in the hoopla over Goldman and Facebook -- that private placements were not intended to be liquid like public securities, and people who thought otherwise could face unexpected losses.

Whether or not you were able to get into the Facebook offering, here is a look at the state of the private market and the risks inherent in it.

They are not required to have extensive disclosures, though many have prospectuses that rival public offerings in detail. But the allure is always the same: access to something that could offer high returns in exchange for high risk.

''We do these all the time with hedge funds and private equity, and they're no different than what Goldman is doing with Facebook,'' said Tony Roth, head of investment strategy and wealth planning at UBS. ''We're just giving them more information'' than Goldman gave out on the Facebook offering.

On the contrary, John C. Coffee Jr., a professor at Columbia University Law School and director of its Center on Corporate Governance, said he found the information Goldman gave clients to be more than adequate. ''They gave investors a 100-page memorandum, which they're not obligated to do,'' he said.

Much has been said about the high fees that Goldman is charging for the Facebook deal -- a 4 percent placement fee and 5 percent of gains. A more standard placement fee is 1 to 2 percent. But Goldman has disclosed those fees, and investors can decide if they want to pay it and invest.

So what is the allure of the deal, since the profitability has been roundly questioned? Meir Statman, professor of finance at Santa Clara University and author of ''What Investors Really Want'' (McGraw-Hill, 2010), said people willing to invest in the Facebook offering were being lured by the ''attraction of status.'' He said investing in an offering with such a high, $2 million minimum investment conveyed to others that the investor was wealthy, just as hanging a Picasso in your house is more than a way to cover wall space.

''You won't go out and tell people you invest for status, but you will go out and tell them that you're a socially responsible investor,'' Mr. Statman said. ''It's neither part of risk or return assessment, but some people care very deeply about it and they're willing to give up return for it.''

AUDIENCE Private placements certainly are not for every investor. Nor should they be.

But the risk is that people who do not have enough wealth to absorb the potential losses are able to invest in them. To be considered an ''accredited investor'' by the Securities and Exchange Commission, a person either has to have a net worth of $1 million or an annual income in excess of $200,000 ($300,000 for couples) over the last two years. Mr. Coffee said there was a provision in the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill to increase these limits, but it was removed.

This was a risky deletion because the minimum to get into any private placement is $250,000. In theory, an accredited investor with $1 million in the bank could be investing alongside someone with $100 million. But losing that $250,000 investment is going to mean different things to those two people.

''If someone is worth $30 million and they spend $2 million on the Facebook deal and it goes to zero, you still have bread and butter on your table,'' Mr. Statman said. ''If I have $2 million and put it all in it, that would be stupid.''

Beyond status, there are rational reasons to go into or avoid a private placement.

It could be a good investment if the manager of the offering could exert control over the company's direction, Mr. Bailin said. This is something that venture capital companies do all the time, though it is hard to imagine that Goldman will have much say in what Facebook does now.

On the other hand, a lack of transparency and high fees may be reason to avoid a private offering. ''A lot of these things tend to be very sexy, but there is a high cost, high illiquidity and a high level of uncertainty about the final outcome,'' Mr. Roth said.

FALSE ASSUMPTIONS The real risk is not that the investment in Facebook or any private placement goes down -- or even to zero. This happens with public securities, too. The risk is in the false confidence investors may have that they can sell their private investment early.

Firms like Felix Investments, Second Market and SharesPost bill themselves as secondary markets for private investments. Under normal market conditions, they match buyers and sellers like any exchange. The problem arises when a private company comes under duress and the buyers disappear.

''On the N.Y.S.E. or the Nasdaq, the specialists have to stay in the market,'' Mr. Coffee said. ''The price changes but you can still sell it. With private placements, people may be locked into a sinking ship.''

While the initial offerings are limited to a select group of investors, there is growing concern about who the buyers are in these secondary markets. This week on the SharesPost Web site, the Facebook offering was trading up nearly 15 percent, giving the company a value of $53.65 billion.

Yet there was one buyer on the site looking to buy 365 shares at $70 a share, or at an implied valuation of $158 billion. The cost of those shares was only $25,550, and that, of course, is the risk.

A less wealthy accredited investor could buy those shares on a private exchange without any help in assessing the risk involved and lose all the money. Yet that is an inherent risk in the private market.

''Almost as many securities are sold in private placements as in public offerings,'' Mr. Coffee said. ''All of those companies you know in Silicon Valley did it through private placements. And the people who waited it out found that maybe one in three made a 500 percent return.''

The corollary to that is two out of three probably never came to market, which is why investing in such private offerings is like an amateur skiing a double black diamond run: sometimes even the experts do not make it down.

SANTA CRUZ -- Santa Cruz police are poised to be the first in the nation to use a new statistical model to predict crime and try to prevent it.

Police recently submitted eight years of crime reports to an applied mathematics professor at Santa Clara University, and he is mapping the time, location and recurrence of crimes to help police predict crime and tailor their patrols. It's an emerging, national movement called "predictive policing."

"I think the more you put police in areas where there is more crime, the more efficiently you're policing the city," said George Mohler, the Santa Clara University professor doing the research.

Mohler said the goal is not to arrest more people, but rather to have an

officer patrolling a neighborhood so that a car burglary, for example, doesn't happen in the first place.

Zach Friend, a crime analyst for the Santa Cruz Police Department, said he approached Mohler about the project after reading news reports about predictive policing in the fall.

In November, Friend and Santa Cruz police leaders met with Mohler and gave him data from 2002 to 2009 - as well as the city's 2010 data this week. The data focused on property crimes, including the time, date and location of home burglaries, vehicle burglaries and stolen vehicles.

"The overall model is based on the belief that crime is not random. So with enough data points, you could predict where and when it will happen," Friend said.

Mohler

added, "We don't view criminals as deviants, it's people who see an opportunity and take advantage of it."

If a person sees a laptop computer in a parked car, for example, and a police officer is driving by at the same time, the thief backs off. The crime is prevented, the person is not arrested and the police are more efficient on patrol.

Mohler earned a doctorate at UCLA, where he crunched numbers with crime data from the Los Angeles and Long Beach police departments. He expects to return his results to Santa Cruz police in the coming months, and police will decide how to change patrol locations and times within officers' usual shifts.

The changes will start in February at the soonest, police said.

"We're the only police agency in the country doing it," Friend said.

Santa Cruz police now use maps of reported crime, crime statistics, neighborhood complaints and old-fashioned officer intuition to combat crime. In the new system, police anticipate that officers will receive instructions in their roll call meetings before each shift to talk about places and times to perform extra checks, Friend said. Supervisors also might discuss predicted spikes in crime.

Mohler, a 29-year-old assistant professor, said he is doing the work at no charge. He said he wants to build his repertoire of published research.

Mohler said burglars who successfully steal from a home or car often return there because they knew it worked. No one was at a home when it was broken into at 2 p.m., for instance, and burglars often use that knowledge to return or break in to another house in the neighborhood.

In Santa Cruz, Mohler has found that repeat car and home burglaries tend to happen four days after a crime. In Los Angeles and Long Beach, he said, the recurrence takes seven to eight days, Mohler said.

It's unclear why, but Mohler said that kind of data could help police.

"Whether a person returns four days later or six days later might not be intuitive," he said.

The Law School Admissions Test is a rite of passage for aspiring lawyers, but could go from mandatory to voluntary under proposed changes to the American Bar Association's law school accreditation standards.

The committee reviewing the standards is leaning toward dropping the rule that law schools require J.D. applicants to take a "valid and reliable admission test," chairman Donald Polden, dean of Santa Clara University School of Law, said on Wednesday.

"A substantial portion of the committee believes that provision should be repealed," said Polden, noting that about 10 law schools already have waivers from the ABA allowing them to admit some students who haven't taken the LSAT.

Much of the committee's LSAT debate has focused on the proper role of the ABA in the regulation of law school admissions, said Loyola University Chicago School of Law Dean David Yellen, who sits on the standards review committee.

"I think an accrediting body ought to ensure that law schools are producing students who can enter the practice," he said, noting that he personally is on the fence about the LSAT requirement. "Is taking a standardized test the only way to determine if someone should be able to go to law school? Schools ought to be able to decide how they want to admit students."

Yellen said committee members have also questioned whether the ABA should be making rules that financially benefit the Law School Admission Council—the organization that administers the LSAT.

"It's a wealthy institution," Yellen said. "So many people take the LSAT. Why is the ABA ensuring its future success?"

The admission council has not taken a position on the committee's proposal, said spokeswomen Wendy Margolis, but council President Daniel Bernstine did address the committee during a meeting last year. "It would be inappropriate and premature of us to comment before a decision has been made by the committee," Margolis said.Dropping the LSAT requirement would be unlikely to prompt many schools to abandon the test. Both Polden and Yellen believe that most schools would continue to require the LSAT, in part because it is the most reliable way to measure applicants against each other and make merit-based financial aid decisions.

"I think most schools would keep it," Yellen said. "It gives you an indication of how prepared people are for law school. On the other side, getting rid of the test would be yet another way for law schools to game the U.S. News rankings, but I don't think the ABA should take U.S. News into account when making these decisions."

The committee is still in the relatively early stages of discussing the LSAT. It is closer to finalizing its recommendations in several other areas, including so-called "student learning outcomes." Law schools would be evaluated based on what students learn rather than input measures, such as the size of law libraries or faculty-to-student ratios. That matter was discussed during a two-day committee meeting last weekend.

The learning outcomes standards should be ready for presentation to the ABA's Council on Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar in the summer, Polden said. That council must approve all changes to the accreditation standards.

The committee is still debating other controversial topics, including security of position and tenure for faculty and law school governance.

The draft standards would require law schools to define their educational mission and learning goals for graduating students—a significant departure from the existing standards, which rely on more easily quantifiable measures such as bar passage rates. The draft would require schools to develop assessment methods that would "provide meaningful feedback to students." The schools would assess whether students are attaining the stated educational goals, although the proposal does not specifically define what those goals should be or how they should be measured.

"We are trying to make sure that as we move into this very different way of evaluating schools by assessing student learning outcomes, that we give them a lot of flexibility," Polden said. "The provision is quite general, but the idea is for schools to have leeway."

Too much leeway could be a problem, said Ian Weinstein, the associate dean for clinical programs at Fordham University School of Law and the president of the Clinical Legal Education Association. The association has advocated for stronger, more detailed standards for the learning outcomes of individual students. The committee draft places more focus on the effectiveness of the law school as a whole, rather than on individual students, he said.

"The current version gives schools a lot of room to define mission and outcomes," Weinstein said. The clinical association "has expressed real concern about that all along. In our view, we'd like those learning outcomes to be considerably more specific."

Weinstein believes it would be imprudent to move too far from the existing measures such as faculty-to-student ratios if the new standards don't create strong enough output requirements.

One change the association supports is beefing up the existing requirement that all students take at least one externship, clinic or simulation course.

The committee is still working on the standards that pertain to tenure and security of position, but members largely agree that tenure should be encouraged if not required by the ABA, Polden said. The committee has interpreted the existing accreditation standards to mean that tenure is not a requirement, although many legal academics disagree with that interpretation.

The committee is struggling with changes to law school governance standards, Polden said. It is considering a new standard that law schools require full-time faculty members to participate in governance and decision-making. This would help to eliminate the exclusion of some clinical, legal writing and other non-tenure track positions from hiring decisions and other governance issues, he said.

The committee will hold a public hearing on all of these proposals during its next meeting April 2 in Chicago. Those proposals are posted on the ABA's Web site. Individuals and groups wishing to comment will be asked to register ahead of time to speak during the three-hour public comment session, Polden said.

Karen Sloan can be contacted at ksloan@alm.com.

Go to Law.com for legal information and services on the web.

Sign up today for a free subscription to the Law.com daily legal newswire.

The Law School Admissions Test is a rite of passage for aspiring lawyers, but could go from mandatory to voluntary under proposed changes to the American Bar Association's law school accreditation standards.

The committee reviewing the standards is leaning toward dropping the rule that law schools require J.D. applicants to take a "valid and reliable admission test," chairman Donald Polden, dean of Santa Clara University School of Law, said on Wednesday.

"A substantial portion of the committee believes that provision should be repealed," said Polden, noting that about 10 law schools already have waivers from the ABA allowing them to admit some students who haven't taken the LSAT.

Much of the committee's LSAT debate has focused on the proper role of the ABA in the regulation of law school admissions, said Loyola University Chicago School of Law Dean David Yellen, who sits on the standards review committee.

"I think an accrediting body ought to ensure that law schools are producing students who can enter the practice," he said, noting that he personally is on the fence about the LSAT requirement. "Is taking a standardized test the only way to determine if someone should be able to go to law school? Schools ought to be able to decide how they want to admit students."

Yellen said committee members have also questioned whether the ABA should be making rules that financially benefit the Law School Admission Council—the organization that administers the LSAT.

"It's a wealthy institution," Yellen said. "So many people take the LSAT. Why is the ABA ensuring its future success?"

The admission council has not taken a position on the committee's proposal, said spokeswomen Wendy Margolis, but council President Daniel Bernstine did address the committee during a meeting last year. "It would be inappropriate and premature of us to comment before a decision has been made by the committee," Margolis said.Dropping the LSAT requirement would be unlikely to prompt many schools to abandon the test. Both Polden and Yellen believe that most schools would continue to require the LSAT, in part because it is the most reliable way to measure applicants against each other and make merit-based financial aid decisions.

"I think most schools would keep it," Yellen said. "It gives you an indication of how prepared people are for law school. On the other side, getting rid of the test would be yet another way for law schools to game the U.S. News rankings, but I don't think the ABA should take U.S. News into account when making these decisions."

The committee is still in the relatively early stages of discussing the LSAT. It is closer to finalizing its recommendations in several other areas, including so-called "student learning outcomes." Law schools would be evaluated based on what students learn rather than input measures, such as the size of law libraries or faculty-to-student ratios. That matter was discussed during a two-day committee meeting last weekend.

The learning outcomes standards should be ready for presentation to the ABA's Council on Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar in the summer, Polden said. That council must approve all changes to the accreditation standards.

The committee is still debating other controversial topics, including security of position and tenure for faculty and law school governance.

The draft standards would require law schools to define their educational mission and learning goals for graduating students—a significant departure from the existing standards, which rely on more easily quantifiable measures such as bar passage rates. The draft would require schools to develop assessment methods that would "provide meaningful feedback to students." The schools would assess whether students are attaining the stated educational goals, although the proposal does not specifically define what those goals should be or how they should be measured.

"We are trying to make sure that as we move into this very different way of evaluating schools by assessing student learning outcomes, that we give them a lot of flexibility," Polden said. "The provision is quite general, but the idea is for schools to have leeway."

Too much leeway could be a problem, said Ian Weinstein, the associate dean for clinical programs at Fordham University School of Law and the president of the Clinical Legal Education Association. The association has advocated for stronger, more detailed standards for the learning outcomes of individual students. The committee draft places more focus on the effectiveness of the law school as a whole, rather than on individual students, he said.

"The current version gives schools a lot of room to define mission and outcomes," Weinstein said. The clinical association "has expressed real concern about that all along. In our view, we'd like those learning outcomes to be considerably more specific."

Weinstein believes it would be imprudent to move too far from the existing measures such as faculty-to-student ratios if the new standards don't create strong enough output requirements.

One change the association supports is beefing up the existing requirement that all students take at least one externship, clinic or simulation course.

The committee is still working on the standards that pertain to tenure and security of position, but members largely agree that tenure should be encouraged if not required by the ABA, Polden said. The committee has interpreted the existing accreditation standards to mean that tenure is not a requirement, although many legal academics disagree with that interpretation.

The committee is struggling with changes to law school governance standards, Polden said. It is considering a new standard that law schools require full-time faculty members to participate in governance and decision-making. This would help to eliminate the exclusion of some clinical, legal writing and other non-tenure track positions from hiring decisions and other governance issues, he said.

The committee will hold a public hearing on all of these proposals during its next meeting April 2 in Chicago. Those proposals are posted on the ABA's Web site. Individuals and groups wishing to comment will be asked to register ahead of time to speak during the three-hour public comment session, Polden said.

Karen Sloan can be contacted at ksloan@alm.com.

Go to Law.com for legal information and services on the web.

Sign up today for a free subscription to the Law.com daily legal newswire.

T he American Bar Association, the biggest voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students in the world, is now reviewing the possibility of making the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) an optional requirement rather than mandatory for law school admissions. The National Law Journal reported that the ABA committee is currently looking at the feasibility of the option.

Donald Polden, dean of Santa Clara University School of Law, said that ABA will most likely adopt the new proposition. “The committee reviewing the standards is leaning toward dropping the rule that law schools require J.D. applicants to take a ‘valid and reliable admission test.”

David Yellen, a member of the review committee and dean of University Chicago School of Law, explained that one of the principles behind the elimination of LSAT, which ABA committee is highly considering, is to give law schools more independence on their own admission policies. “Is taking a standardized test the only way to determine if someone should be able to go to law school? Schools ought to be able to decide how they want to admit students.” Yellen added that regardless of ABA's recommendation, he believes that most law schools would still support the administration of LSAT as a requirement in admissions. “I believe that most schools would continue to require the LSAT, in part because it is the most reliable way to measure applicants against each other and make merit-based financial aid decisions.”

The members of the US legal community have varying reactions and predictions over the latest industry news. Some said that those established law schools will continue to require LSAT while some may adopt the new option, especially those newly opened law schools which are in need of students. As of today, ABA committee is still reviewing the new proposal.
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Can You Have Law School Without LSATs? Maybe | View Clip01/14/2011Connecticut Law Tribune

ABA panel weighs idea of making entrance exams optional

The Law School Admissions Test is a rite of passage for aspiring lawyers, but could go from mandatory to voluntary under proposed changes to the American Bar Association's law school accreditation standards.

The committee reviewing the standards is leaning toward dropping the rule that law schools require J.D. applicants to take a “valid and reliable admission test,” said chairman Donald Polden, dean of Santa Clara University School of Law.

“A substantial portion of the committee believes that provision should be repealed,” said Polden, noting that about 10 law schools already have waivers from the ABA allowing them to admit some students who haven't taken the LSAT.

In Connecticut, David King, associate dean at Quinnipiac University School of Law, said he thinks it's a good idea to reassess the merits of the LSAT.

King, who teaches an LSAT prep course at the law school, explained that the LSATs purpose is to predict first-year law school grades. He said it doesn't predict performance over three or four years of law school, what kind of lawyer someone will be or whether he or she will pass the bar exam. Further, he said the correlation between LSAT score and first-year law school grades is not all that high.

“So given that, I think there may be some undue emphasis on the LSAT,” said King. “It might be a good thing to make it optional.”

King said many of his students in the class have a difficult time with the LSAT.

“People who may have done quite well in college, may have a master's degree, and two, three, four years of successful business experience just can't get over that LSAT hurdle,” he said. “Maybe if it's not mandatory that will provide an opportunity for people like that to attend law school.”

King said he's hopeful other law schools would at least give serious thought to how much emphasis they put on LSAT score and not reject the ABA's suggestion out of hand. He praised the ABA's attempt to “try to get law schools to focus on the whole person and reduce the emphasis on the LSAT.”

Much of the committee's LSAT debate has focused on the proper role of the ABA in the regulation of law school admissions, said Loyola University Chicago School of Law Dean David Yellen, who sits on the standards review committee.

“I think an accrediting body ought to ensure that law schools are producing students who can enter the practice,” he said, noting that he personally is on the fence about the LSAT requirement. “Is taking a standardized test the only way to determine if someone should be able to go to law school? Schools ought to be able to decide how they want to admit students.”

Yellen said committee members have also questioned whether the ABA should be making rules that financially benefit the Law School Admission Council—the organization that administers the LSAT. “It's a wealthy institution,” Yellen said. “So many people take the LSAT. Why is the ABA ensuring its future success?”

Yellen believe that most schools would continue to require the LSAT, in part because it is the most reliable way to measure applicants against each other and make merit-based financial aid decisions.

“I think most schools would keep it,” Yellen said. “It gives you an indication of how prepared people are for law school. On the other side, getting rid of the test would be yet another way for law schools to game the U.S. News rankings, but I don't think the ABA should take U.S. News into account when making these decisions.”

The committee is still in the relatively early stages of discussing the LSAT. It is closer to finalizing its recommendations in several other areas, including so-called “student learning outcomes.” Law schools would be evaluated based on what students learn rather than input measures, such as the size of law libraries or faculty-to-student ratios.

The learning outcomes standards should be ready for presentation to the ABA's Council on Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar in the summer, said Polden, the Santa Clara professor. That council must approve all changes to the accreditation standards.

“We are trying to make sure that as we move into this very different way of evaluating schools by assessing student learning outcomes, that we give them a lot of flexibility,” Polden said. “The provision is quite general, but the idea is for schools to have leeway.”•

For New S.F. DA, Now Comes the Trial By Fire | View Clip01/14/2011Cal Law

San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón Image: Jason Doiy/The Recorder SAN FRANCISCO When Gavin Newsom swore in his police chief as the new district attorney, The San Francisco Chronicle lauded the appointment as "bold." But the mood around the Hall of Justice was less celebratory.

There, some judges and attorneys saw Gascn's quick decision to take the job as evidence of ego and political ambition, two things they say the district attorney's office doesn't need in a leader.

Cutting through the chatter on both sides was the reality of what lies ahead in Gascn's next 10 months. In taking a pay cut and stunner of a job offer, the erstwhile police chief can look forward to a crash course in the complicated culture of the district attorney's office and the potential for a bare-knuckle fight to keep his new job.

If he's fretting about either of those, he does a good job disguising it. Gascn sounds like a man setting out imperturbably to get a big job done."My measure of success is going to be whether the San Francisco district attorney's office is going to continue to do the good things they're doing right now," he said. "Will I have the ability to take this office to the next level? My goal is to make it one of the best district attorney's offices in the country."CRACKING THE WHIPGascn got off to a tone-deaf start a week ago, when he called an all-hands meeting at 10 a.m. on Monday, an hour when most of his line prosecutors were due in court."I thought it went very well," he said later of his introduction to the office.

People who heard firsthand accounts of the meeting from prosecutors who attended said Gascn sounded like a workaholic. "I like people to work hard," Gascn, 56, said he told the employees gathered at the meeting.

Another, more positive impression some prosecutors got was that he might turn out to be a leader inclined to institute a more merit-based form of compensation, and one who would go after dead weight in the office.Gascn, a Cuban-born career police officer with a shock of unruly white hair, had been hailed in his 18 months as San Francisco's new police chief as the right man to whip that department into shape."He's a CEO-style police chief," said Nathan Ballard, the former Gavin Newsom spokesman who was working for the ex-mayor during the police chief search. "He inspires people, he leads by example. He came here and he shook things up in the police department. I think the DA's office is a perfect fit."Two of the major things Gascn did as police chief, said police union President Gary Delagnes, was to institute the Compstat statistics-focused model of policing and to decentralize the office sending police inspectors out to the bureaus. While the latter move wasn't initially welcomed by Delagnes' union members, he said, "by the end there was a trust level. I would say they liked him."He's very professional, very serious, very goal-oriented. He has an agenda and he follows it."At the DA's office, which Gascn had yet to fully move into from his fifth-floor chief's office at the end of last week, Gascn said he would gather information before he makes any changes. He said he would be putting his transition team together in the next 10 to 15 days, and he would have an annual work plan in place in the next four to six weeks.

While early speculation had people guessing he might bring on an ally in particular, Police Commission president and former federal prosecutor Thomas Mazzucco to help him navigate the DA's office, Gascn said he hadn't spoken to Mazzucco about it."Right now, I'm just spending time with our staff," Gascn said. "There's a lot of ideas about reorganization, frankly ideas that AG [Kamala] Harris had already started to entertain. We're plowing through that information. How do we structure our office to be as efficient as we can be? What are some of the new services or existing services that we may want to alter, either enhance or decrease? So those are the things that we're doing right now."INSIDE-OUTSIDER

Newsom's decision to pass over practicing attorneys to fill the vacancy created by Harris' ascension to the attorney general's office left many Hall of Justice veterans cold. Critics of the pick were quick to point out that Gascn has never tried a case."I think it's a missed opportunity to appoint an experienced prosecutor to the post, someone who has the respect of the rank and file," said former S.F. Board of Supervisors president and public defender Matt Gonzalez.

One of Newsom's stated reasons for choosing Gascn was his ability to mend relations between the police department and the DA's office.

But critics balk at the notion of too cozy a relationship between the two entities.

In particular, said Santa Clara University School of Law professor Gerald Uelmen, there's a potential conflict with Gascn having to make decisions about police cases, since he has a prior relationship in his role as police chief."I think there are problems connected with it in terms of the traditional relationship between the police department and the district attorney's office in terms of the district attorney functioning as a watchdog over the police," Uelmen said.Gascn, who came to San Francisco from his job as police chief of Mesa, Ariz., said the DA's office is one of the smallest organizations he's ever run. And he touts his unique qualifications and his stacked law enforcement resume. Before Mesa, he was an assistant chief at LAPD under Chief Bill Bratton and during various periods was responsible for operations, human resources, risk management and employee relations.

Public Defender Jeff Adachi called Gascn an "inside-outsider" whose first challenge is to win the confidence of the DA's office line staff."It's going to take him some time to know the people he's going to be working with," Adachi said.Asked about the perception that his lack of trial experience is a weak point, Gascn said: "I'm not really concerned about that. In a large district attorney's office like this one, if the DA is prosecuting cases himself or herself, they're not doing their job."And Gascn said he thought the real concern in the office was more of a philosophical one. He made an effort in his introductory meeting at the office to let it be known that he has progressive views on reforming the criminal justice system. In a speech when he was sworn in at City Hall a week ago, Gascn made an effort to start out on a harmonious note with Adachi, saying he believed in a defendant's right not just to due process in the justice system, but also "due process in life."Adachi said he took Gascn's remarks to mean that he'll be a DA interested in expanding re-entry programs, drug rehab and other services."It's going to be particularly critical, because the state is going to begin sending prisoners convicted of low-level crimes back to the counties," Adachi said. "We're going to have to be more creative and innovative."MISGIVINGS AT THE HALL

Skeptics at the Hall are concerned about Gascn's mere 18 months of institutional memory in San Francisco and his unfamiliarity with the heavily nuanced interactions between his new office, the police, the public defender's office, the court and the private bar.

Former prosecutor Elliot Beckelman said line prosecutors were hoping the mayor would appoint a professional district attorney, someone who could focus on and fight for the internal needs of the office."Here you have a guy who has no experience running a district attorney's office," said Beckelman, who is now with the State Department of Industrial Relations. "He'll look good in a dark suit talking before community groups, but that's only part of the job."Others dismissed the appointment as merely a political calculation on Newsom's part moderating his San Francisco image by picking a conservative law-and-order type DA.

One judge at the Hall of Justice, while saying that Gascn could turn out to be a good district attorney if he enlists savvy people to advise him, described the overall mood of misgivings this way: "Once again, we're not going to have someone who really wants to make this a great prosecutorial office, but is more concerned about advancing their own career."Gascn doesn't see it that way."I think I'm one of the least politically ambitious persons since I wasn't even looking for the job," Gascn said. And he was unequivocal about his intentions."I'm not looking to go anywhere, Gascn said. "My goal, quite frankly, is to be the San Francisco DA for a very long time. My background is in reform of the criminal justice system. I have really been very aggressively involved in this on the policing side of it, and this offers me this unique opportunity to really be much more [involved] in the process. So I really do not have any interest in another political office. This is what I want to do, and I feel incredibly fortunate to have this opportunity. So I will be a career DA."POLITICAL MINEFIELDS

One take on the appointment of Gascn to the DA's office is that Newsom not only robbed the city of an excellent police chief, but set the political novice up for certain failure in the unique world of San Francisco electoral politics.Gascn, a former Republican who registered as decline-to-state when he moved to San Francisco, switched his party affiliation to Democrat on Thursday. He has said that he is not philosophically opposed to the death penalty, and that he would consider imposing the death penalty in heinous cases.

Given the unpopularity of Gascn's death penalty stance in San Francisco, the new DA's electibility is one of the minefields former public defender and dean of Golden Gate law school, Peter Keane, sees in Gascn's path."He's not someone who knows the political landscape," Keane said. "It's not going to be any kind of cakewalk to get elected. There'll be lots of opposition lining up against him, and he's going to be vulnerable on a number of issues."The air of cronyism that Gascn's appointment carried with it, Keane said, could make the new DA politically vulnerable. He made a comparison to when former Mayor Willie Brown appointed Kimiko Burton, the daughter of his friend and Democratic powerbroker John Burton, to lead the public defender's office in 2001."Jeff Adachi knocked her off in one year," Keane said. "Even someone like Kim Burton, who had all the power of the Burton political machine behind her, all the fundraising behind her that was seen as a political payoff."Bay Area political consultant Jim Ross said the race is still wide open, despite the advantage Gascn has from his incumbency."People will be making their mind up about Gascn about the same time they're deciding whether to vote for him," Ross said.

For Same-Sex Couples, a Tax Victory That Doesn't Feel Like One | View Clip01/14/2011New York Times - Online

Scott James is a columnist for The Bay Citizen. California same-sex couples had a window for marriages.

A nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization providing local coverage of the San Francisco Bay Area for The New York Times. To join the conversation about this article, go to baycitizen.org.

A decision in May by the that was hailed as a step toward equality for same-sex couples has instead become a headache for tens of thousands of gay and lesbian families in California.

Same-sex couples who are registered domestic partners or who married during the brief legal window are facing a new, more complicated tax status, one that has raised a litany of expensive concerns. Many of these families will now have to pay for professional help to file by April 15.

The issues involve an I.R.S. decision that affects the three states with both community-property laws and same-sex marriage or registered domestic partnerships: California, Nevada and Washington.

Married heterosexual couples in those states have long had the option of filing their federal taxes separately and splitting their earned incomes (community property) on their tax returns. If one person makes more than the other, splitting can result in paying lower taxes by taking the higher earnings down a tax bracket or more.

After gay rights advocates fought for five years, the I.R.S. decision let the same rules apply to legally partnered same-sex couples an estimated 60,000 in California.

Pan Haskins, an Oakland tax consultant and proponent of the change, called the decision a big step forward in recognition of same-sex couples and our property rights under state law. But carrying out the change has proved challenging. Theres no box to check on tax forms to indicate the relationship, Ms. Haskins said.

The omission is problematic. Employers send W-2 income reports directly to the I.R.S., so it could appear that some filers are cheating on their taxes or underreporting income and could face penalties.

It has already happened to the man who prompted the I.R.S. change in the first place.

Eric Rey, the chief executive of an agricultural biotech firm, earned more than his partner of 27 years and thought it was unfair that heterosexual couples with comparable earnings paid lower taxes. So with his friend and neighbor, Donald H. Read, a tax lawyer, he challenged the I.R.S. in 2005. Im not a rabble-rouser, said Mr. Rey, 54, sipping coffee at the French Hotel cafe in Berkeley, his gray knit shirt buttoned to the top, but I dont shy away from a fight if I believe in the principle of something. Mr. Read, who is straight, agreed it was a matter of fairness.

Since their victory, however, it has been an ordeal. Mr. Rey filed amended tax returns, as the decision allows, to have about $11,000 a year refunded from when he was overtaxed. But many I.R.S. agents were unaware of the change.

As a result, Mr. Rey said he had faced a barrage of bureaucracy, with I.R.S. letters arriving every two weeks (usually by registered mail, requiring a trip to the post office). He has not received his entire refund, and his partner accused of under-reporting income was billed $20,000 for compounded interest and penalties. The decision hasnt really rippled down to all hands, Mr. Rey said. Same-sex couples do not have the option of waiting for these issues to be resolved. The decision on income-splitting appears to be mandatory and immediate. I do not believe taxpayers can choose whether to follow the income-splitting rule, Patricia Cain, a law school professor at Santa Clara University and leading expert on same-sex tax law, recently wrote. The law is the law and you must follow it. If only it were that simple.

Linda Keslik, a tax accountant, is advising clients affected by the law not to file electronically. Theres no way an e-file return can understand all these splits, Ms. Keslik said, adding that for paper returns accountants have created makeshift work sheets for the I.R.S.

Translation: same-sex couples will need expertise to file this year, at a probable cost of hundreds of dollars per household.

I.R.S. officials declined to discuss the matter.

Confusing and costly tax returns are not the only fallout from the I.R.S. change; the policy has set off a chain reaction of other concerns. In a report to Congress last week, the federal Taxpayer Advocate Service put the situation in its most serious problems category, saying the change could have many unintended consequences, like on student loan eligibility and tax credits for same-sex couples.

This small taste of equality, it appears, could come at quite a price one that heterosexual married couples do not pay. Its drawing attention to the inequities, Ms. Haskins said. Scott James is an Emmy-winning television journalist and novelist who lives in San Francisco.sjames@baycitizen.org

For Same-Sex Couples, a Tax Victory That Doesn't Feel Like One01/14/2011New York Times, The

Scott James is a columnist for The Bay Citizen.

A decision in May by the Internal Revenue Service that was hailed as a step toward equality for same-sex couples has instead become a headache for tens of thousands of gay and lesbian families in California.

Same-sex couples who are registered domestic partners -- or who married during the brief legal window -- are facing a new, more complicated tax status, one that has raised a litany of expensive concerns. Many of these families will now have to pay for professional help to file by April 15.

The issues involve an I.R.S. decision that affects the three states with both community-property laws and same-sex marriage or registered domestic partnerships: California, Nevada and Washington.

Married heterosexual couples in those states have long had the option of filing their federal taxes separately and splitting their earned incomes (community property) on their tax returns. If one person makes more than the other, splitting can result in paying lower taxes by taking the higher earnings down a tax bracket or more.

After gay rights advocates fought for five years, the I.R.S. decision let the same rules apply to legally partnered same-sex couples -- an estimated 60,000 in California.

Pan Haskins, an Oakland tax consultant and proponent of the change, called the decision ''a big step forward in recognition of same-sex couples and our property rights under state law.''

But carrying out the change has proved challenging.

''There's no box to check'' on tax forms to indicate the relationship, Ms. Haskins said.

The omission is problematic. Employers send W-2 income reports directly to the I.R.S., so it could appear that some filers are cheating on their taxes or underreporting income and could face penalties.

It has already happened -- to the man who prompted the I.R.S. change in the first place.

Eric Rey, the chief executive of an agricultural biotech firm, earned more than his partner of 27 years and thought it was unfair that heterosexual couples with comparable earnings paid lower taxes. So with his friend and neighbor, Donald H. Read, a tax lawyer, he challenged the I.R.S. in 2005.

''I'm not a rabble-rouser,'' said Mr. Rey, 54, sipping coffee at the French Hotel cafe in Berkeley, his gray knit shirt buttoned to the top, ''but I don't shy away from a fight if I believe in the principle of something.''

Mr. Read, who is straight, agreed it was a matter of fairness.

Since their victory, however, it has been an ordeal. Mr. Rey filed amended tax returns, as the decision allows, to have about $11,000 a year refunded from when he was overtaxed. But many I.R.S. agents were unaware of the change.

As a result, Mr. Rey said he had faced a barrage of bureaucracy, with I.R.S. letters arriving every two weeks (usually by registered mail, requiring a trip to the post office). He has not received his entire refund, and his partner -- accused of under-reporting income -- was billed $20,000 for compounded interest and penalties.

Same-sex couples do not have the option of waiting for these issues to be resolved. The decision on income-splitting appears to be mandatory and immediate.

''I do not believe taxpayers can choose whether to follow the income-splitting rule,'' Patricia Cain, a law school professor at Santa Clara University and leading expert on same-sex tax law, recently wrote. ''The law is the law and you must follow it.''

If only it were that simple.

Linda Keslik, a tax accountant, is advising clients affected by the law not to file electronically. ''There's no way an e-file return can understand all these splits,'' Ms. Keslik said, adding that for paper returns accountants have created makeshift work sheets for the I.R.S.

Translation: same-sex couples will need expertise to file this year, at a probable cost of hundreds of dollars per household.

I.R.S. officials declined to discuss the matter.

Confusing and costly tax returns are not the only fallout from the I.R.S. change; the policy has set off a chain reaction of other concerns. In a report to Congress last week, the federal Taxpayer Advocate Service put the situation in its ''most serious problems'' category, saying the change could have many unintended consequences, like on student loan eligibility and tax credits for same-sex couples.

This small taste of equality, it appears, could come at quite a price -- one that heterosexual married couples do not pay.

« Profiling 112th Congress Freshman Members | Main | Friday Fun: Law School State of Mind »

"The Law School Admissions Test is a rite of passage for aspiring lawyers, but could go from mandatory to voluntary under proposed changes to the American Bar Association's law school accreditation standards" reports NLJ's Karen Sloan in ABA panel considering making the LSAT optional. I do prefer the New York Lawyer's title for the virtually identical article by Sloan, Hasta la Vista, LSAT? Hey, ALM knows how to re-purpose the same content it has readily available just like the Big Boys!

From the NLJ article with the less catchy title:

The committee reviewing the standards is leaning toward dropping the rule that law schools require J.D. applicants to take a "valid and reliable admission test," chairman Donald Polden, dean of Santa Clara University School of Law, said on Wednesday.

"A substantial portion of the committee believes that provision should be repealed," said Polden, noting that about 10 law schools already have waivers from the ABA allowing them to admit some students who haven't taken the LSAT.

Following the new rhetoric, Loyola University (Chicago) Law Dean David Yellen, who is a member of the ABA's the standards review committee, said "I think an accrediting body ought to ensure that law schools are producing students who can enter the practice." This is the new draft script inspired in part by AALS's recent annual meet. See the Chronicle's Law Schools Are Urged to Focus More on Practical Skills and Less on Research.

So rhetorically speaking, most of the 21-188, if not the 11-188 ranked law schools are getting on the same page for script-reading purposes. Well, perhaps we should acknowledge that many residents in the bottom 50% of US News ranked law schools have been focusing on producing students who are prepared to practice their chosen profession as institutional missions. So the aspiring actors trying to catch up by rehearsing the new script are more likely to be working in law schools ranked between 11 or 20 to 100. They are the schools full of profs driven by status envy.

All this is kind of like taking the play out on the road to see if any of the theater troupes have a chance for an Off Broadway venue. Whether many of the 21 11-100 ranked law schools actually have the talent in their entrenched cast of players to make it to Off Broadway remains to be seen. The legal academy knows how to talk the talk; even some who made careers of following the old "scholarship, scholarship, scholarship" script have changed their tune. You know who they are. They've been "below the title" performers in faculty meetings, ones championing the cause for smaller teaching loads, and encouraging the hiring of more profs to get to the promised land of an under 10:1 faculty-student ratio, half that required by the ABA, to free up more more free time for "scholarship, scholarship, scholarship" few read and fewer cite. But can they walk the walk? Can they sing and dance? This is going to be a musical where many in the legal academy can't hold a note, can't execute any group choreography for long if they don't have a center stage solo performance.

Slone reports that "[t]he ABA standards review] committee is still in the relatively early stages of discussing the LSAT. It is closer to finalizing its recommendations in several other areas, including so-called 'student learning outcomes.'" So-called indeed. Wait for a playbill in your local amateur theater for an updated version of "Heil Myself." [JH]

Private Stock Deals Are That Way for a Reason | View Clip01/14/2011New York Times - Online

Private share offerings occur every week in the United States. By one estimate, they are nearly as common as public security sales.

But news that Goldman Sachs would sell private shares in Facebook, the worlds largest social networking site and a private company, was met with some criticism that the offering was only open to the richest of the rich.

But that is the audience for all these private offerings. In reality, they are the only people who could and should invest in such high-risk private deals. Sure, the deals might offer phenomenal returns, but they might also be worthless. Only the wealthy can absorb that level of loss.

The private offerings are often narrow or targeted investments, said David Bailin, global head of managed investments at Citi Private Bank. Its a highly concentrated investment, probably not that liquid, but its how its designed. Yet both advisers and academics said the bigger issue with private placements was being overlooked in the hoopla over Goldman and Facebook that private placements were not intended to be liquid like public securities, and people who thought otherwise could face unexpected losses.

Whether or not you were able to get into the Facebook offering, here is a look at the state of the private market and the risks inherent in it.

They are not required to have extensive disclosures, though many have prospectuses that rival public offerings in detail. But the allure is always the same: access to something that could offer high returns in exchange for high risk. We do these all the time with hedge funds and private equity, and theyre no different than what Goldman is doing with Facebook, said Tony Roth, head of investment strategy and wealth planning at UBS. Were just giving them more information than Goldman gave out on the Facebook offering.

On the contrary, John C. Coffee Jr., a professor at Columbia University Law School and director of its Center on Corporate Governance, said he found the information Goldman gave clients to be more than adequate. They gave investors a 100-page memorandum, which theyre not obligated to do, he said. Much has been said about the high fees that Goldman is charging for the Facebook deal a 4 percent placement fee and 5 percent of gains. A more standard placement fee is 1 to 2 percent. But Goldman has disclosed those fees, and investors can decide if they want to pay it and invest.

So what is the allure of the deal, since the profitability has been roundly questioned? Meir Statman, professor of finance at Santa Clara University and author of What Investors Really Want (McGraw-Hill, 2010), said people willing to invest in the Facebook offering were being lured by attraction status. He said investing in an offering with such a high, $2 million minimum investment conveyed to others that the investor was wealthy, just as hanging a Picasso in your house is more than a way to cover wall space. You wont go out and tell people you invest for status, but you will go out and tell them that youre a socially responsible investor, Mr. Statman said. Its neither part of risk or return assessment, but some people care very deeply about it and theyre willing to give up return for it. AUDIENCE Private placements certainly are not for every investor. Nor should they be.

But the risk is that people who do not have enough wealth to absorb the potential losses are able to invest in them. To be considered an accredited investor by the , a person either has to have a net worth of $1 million or an annual income in excess of $200,000 ($300,000 for couples) over the last two years. Mr. Coffee said there was a provision in the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill to increase these limits, but it was removed.

This was a risky deletion because the minimum to get into any private placement is $250,000. In theory, an accredited investor with $1 million in the bank could be investing alongside someone with $100 million. But losing that $250,000 investment is going to mean different things to those two people. If someone is worth $30 million and they spend $2 million on the Facebook deal and it goes to zero, you still have bread and butter on your table, Mr. Statman said. If I have $2 million and put it all in it, that would be stupid. Beyond status, there are rational reasons to go into or avoid a private placement.

It could be a good investment if the manager of the offering could exert control over the companys direction, Mr. Bailin said. This is something that venture capital companies do all the time, though it is hard to imagine that Goldman will have much say in what Facebook does now. Ramesh Ponnuru on why Republicans should resist calls to tackle entitlements.

Helen Rubinstein on why she stole wi-fi for years and you should, too.

SANTA CRUZ -- Santa Cruz police are poised to be the first in the nation to use a new statistical model to predict crime and try to prevent it.

Police recently submitted eight years of crime reports to an applied mathematics professor at Santa Clara University, and he is mapping the time, location and recurrence of crimes to help police predict crime and tailor their patrols. It's an emerging, national movement called "predictive policing."

"I think the more you put police in areas where there is more crime, the more efficiently you're policing the city," said George Mohler, the Santa Clara University professor doing the research.

Mohler said the goal is not to arrest more people, but rather to have an officer patrolling a neighborhood so that a car burglary, for example, doesn't happen in the first place.

Zach Friend, a crime analyst for the Santa Cruz Police Department, said he approached Mohler about the project after reading news reports about predictive policing in the fall.

In November, Friend and Santa Cruz police leaders met with Mohler and gave him data from 2002 to 2009 - as well as the city's 2010 data this week. The data focused on property crimes, including the time, date and location of home burglaries, vehicle burglaries and stolen vehicles.

"The overall model is based on the belief that crime is not random. So with enough data points, you could predict where and when it will happen," Friend said.

Mohler

added, "We don't view criminals as deviants, it's people who see an opportunity and take advantage of it."

If a person sees a laptop computer in a parked car, for example, and a police officer is driving by at the same time, the thief backs off. The crime is prevented, the person is not arrested and the police are more efficient on patrol.

Mohler earned a doctorate at UCLA, where he crunched numbers with crime data from the Los Angeles and Long Beach police departments. He expects to return his results to Santa Cruz police in the coming months, and police will decide how to change patrol locations and times within officers' usual shifts.

The changes will start in February at the soonest, police said.

"We're the only police agency in the country doing it," Friend said.

Santa Cruz police now use maps of reported crime, crime statistics, neighborhood complaints and old-fashioned officer intuition to combat crime. In the new system, police anticipate that officers will receive instructions in their roll call meetings before each shift to talk about places and times to perform extra checks, Friend said. Supervisors also might discuss predicted spikes in crime.

Mohler, a 29-year-old assistant professor, said he is doing the work at no charge. He said he wants to build his repertoire of published research.

Mohler said burglars who successfully steal from a home or car often return there because they knew it worked. No one was at a home when it was broken into at 2 p.m., for instance, and burglars often use that knowledge to return or break in to another house in the neighborhood.

In Santa Cruz, Mohler has found that repeat car and home burglaries tend to happen four days after a crime. In Los Angeles and Long Beach, he said, the recurrence takes seven to eight days, Mohler said.

It's unclear why, but Mohler said that kind of data could help police.

"Whether a person returns four days later or six days later might not be intuitive," he said.

Santa Cruz police are poised to be the first in the nation to use a new statistical model to predict crime and try to prevent it. Police recently submitted eight years of crime reports to an applied mathematics professor at , and he is mapping the time, location and recurrence of...

SANTA CRUZ -- Santa Cruz police are poised to be the first in the nation to use a new statistical model to predict crime and try to prevent it.

Police recently submitted eight years of crime reports to an applied mathematics professor at Santa Clara University, and he is mapping the time, location and recurrence of crimes to help police predict crime and tailor their patrols. It's an emerging, national movement called "predictive policing."

"I think the more you put police in areas where there is more crime, the more efficiently you're policing the city," said George Mohler, the Santa Clara University professor doing the research.

Mohler said the goal is not to arrest more people, but rather to have an officer patrolling a neighborhood so that a car burglary, for example, doesn't happen in the first place.

Zach Friend, a crime analyst for the Santa Cruz Police Department, said he approached Mohler about the project after reading news reports about predictive policing in the fall.

In November, Friend and Santa Cruz police leaders met with Mohler and gave him data from 2002 to 2009 - as well as the city's 2010 data this week. The data focused on property crimes, including the time, date and location of home burglaries, vehicle burglaries and stolen vehicles.

"The overall model is based on the belief that crime is not random. So with enough data points, you could predict where and when it will happen," Friend said.Mohler added, "We don't view criminals as deviants, it's people who see an opportunity and take advantage of it."

If a person sees a laptop computer in a parked car, for example, and a police officer is driving by at the same time, the thief backs off. The crime is prevented, the person is not arrested and the police are more efficient on patrol.

Mohler earned a doctorate at UCLA, where he crunched numbers with crime data from the Los Angeles and Long Beach police departments. He expects to return his results to Santa Cruz police in the coming months, and police will decide how to change patrol locations and times within officers' usual shifts.

The changes will start in February at the soonest, police said.

"We're the only police agency in the country doing it," Friend said.

Santa Cruz police now use maps of reported crime, crime statistics, neighborhood complaints and old-fashioned officer intuition to combat crime. In the new system, police anticipate that officers will receive instructions in their roll call meetings before each shift to talk about places and times to perform extra checks, Friend said. Supervisors also might discuss predicted spikes in crime.

Mohler, a 29-year-old assistant professor, said he is doing the work at no charge. He said he wants to build his repertoire of published research.

Mohler said burglars who successfully steal from a home or car often return there because they knew it worked. No one was at a home when it was broken into at 2 p.m., for instance, and burglars often use that knowledge to return or break in to another house in the neighborhood.

In Santa Cruz, Mohler has found that repeat car and home burglaries tend to happen four days after a crime. In Los Angeles and Long Beach, he said, the recurrence takes seven to eight days, Mohler said.

It's unclear why, but Mohler said that kind of data could help police.

"Whether a person returns four days later or six days later might not be intuitive," he said.

Santa Cruz police first in nation to try Santa Clara University model to predict crime01/14/2011San Mateo County Times

SANTA CRUZ -- Santa Cruz police are poised to be the first in the nation to use a new statistical model to predict crime and try to prevent it.

Police recently submitted eight years of crime reports to an applied mathematics professor at Santa Clara University, and he is mapping the time, location and recurrence of crimes to help police predict crime and tailor their patrols. It's an emerging, national movement called "predictive policing."

"I think the more you put police in areas where there is more crime, the more efficiently you're policing the city," said George Mohler, the Santa Clara University professor doing the research.

Mohler said the goal is not to arrest more people, but rather to have an officer patrolling a neighborhood so that a car burglary, for example, doesn't happen in the first place.

Zach Friend, a crime analyst for the Santa Cruz Police Department, said he approached Mohler about the project after reading news reports about predictive policing in the fall.

In November, Friend and Santa Cruz police leaders met with Mohler and gave him data from 2002 to 2009 - as well as the city's 2010 data this week. The data focused on property crimes, including the time, date and location of home burglaries, vehicle burglaries and stolen vehicles.

"The overall model is based on the belief that crime is not random. So with enough data points, you could predict where and when it will happen," Friend said.

Mohler added, "We don't view criminals as deviants, it's people who see an opportunity and take advantage of it."

If a person sees a laptop computer in a parked car, for example, and a police officer is driving by at the same time, the thief backs off. The crime is prevented, the person is not arrested and the police are more efficient on patrol.

Mohler earned a doctorate at UCLA, where he crunched numbers with crime data from the Los Angeles and Long Beach police departments. He expects to return his results to Santa Cruz police in the coming months, and police will decide how to change patrol locations and times within officers' usual shifts.

The changes will start in February at the soonest, police said.

"We're the only police agency in the country doing it," Friend said.

Santa Cruz police now use maps of reported crime, crime statistics, neighborhood complaints and old-fashioned officer intuition to combat crime. In the new system, police anticipate that officers will receive instructions in their roll call meetings before each shift to talk about places and times to perform extra checks, Friend said. Supervisors also might discuss predicted spikes in crime.

Mohler, a 29-year-old assistant professor, said he is doing the work at no charge. He said he wants to build his repertoire of published research.

Mohler said burglars who successfully steal from a home or car often return there because they knew it worked. No one was at a home when it was broken into at 2 p.m., for instance, and burglars often use that knowledge to return or break in to another house in the neighborhood.

In Santa Cruz, Mohler has found that repeat car and home burglaries tend to happen four days after a crime. In Los Angeles and Long Beach, he said, the recurrence takes seven to eight days, Mohler said.

It's unclear why, but Mohler said that kind of data could help police.

"Whether a person returns four days later or six days later might not be intuitive," he said.

Santa Cruz police first in nation to try Santa Clara University model to predict crime01/14/2011Oakland Tribune

SANTA CRUZ -- Santa Cruz police are poised to be the first in the nation to use a new statistical model to predict crime and try to prevent it.

Police recently submitted eight years of crime reports to an applied mathematics professor at Santa Clara University, and he is mapping the time, location and recurrence of crimes to help police predict crime and tailor their patrols. It's an emerging, national movement called "predictive policing."

"I think the more you put police in areas where there is more crime, the more efficiently you're policing the city," said George Mohler, the Santa Clara University professor doing the research.

Mohler said the goal is not to arrest more people, but rather to have an officer patrolling a neighborhood so that a car burglary, for example, doesn't happen in the first place.

Zach Friend, a crime analyst for the Santa Cruz Police Department, said he approached Mohler about the project after reading news reports about predictive policing in the fall.

In November, Friend and Santa Cruz police leaders met with Mohler and gave him data from 2002 to 2009 - as well as the city's 2010 data this week. The data focused on property crimes, including the time, date and location of home burglaries, vehicle burglaries and stolen vehicles.

"The overall model is based on the belief that crime is not random. So with enough data points, you could predict where and when it will happen," Friend said.

Mohler added, "We don't view criminals as deviants, it's people who see an opportunity and take advantage of it."

If a person sees a laptop computer in a parked car, for example, and a police officer is driving by at the same time, the thief backs off. The crime is prevented, the person is not arrested and the police are more efficient on patrol.

Mohler earned a doctorate at UCLA, where he crunched numbers with crime data from the Los Angeles and Long Beach police departments. He expects to return his results to Santa Cruz police in the coming months, and police will decide how to change patrol locations and times within officers' usual shifts.

The changes will start in February at the soonest, police said.

"We're the only police agency in the country doing it," Friend said.

Santa Cruz police now use maps of reported crime, crime statistics, neighborhood complaints and old-fashioned officer intuition to combat crime. In the new system, police anticipate that officers will receive instructions in their roll call meetings before each shift to talk about places and times to perform extra checks, Friend said. Supervisors also might discuss predicted spikes in crime.

Mohler, a 29-year-old assistant professor, said he is doing the work at no charge. He said he wants to build his repertoire of published research.

Mohler said burglars who successfully steal from a home or car often return there because they knew it worked. No one was at a home when it was broken into at 2 p.m., for instance, and burglars often use that knowledge to return or break in to another house in the neighborhood.

In Santa Cruz, Mohler has found that repeat car and home burglaries tend to happen four days after a crime. In Los Angeles and Long Beach, he said, the recurrence takes seven to eight days, Mohler said.

It's unclear why, but Mohler said that kind of data could help police.

"Whether a person returns four days later or six days later might not be intuitive," he said.

Santa Cruz police first in nation to try Santa Clara University model to predict crime01/14/2011Argus, The

SANTA CRUZ -- Santa Cruz police are poised to be the first in the nation to use a new statistical model to predict crime and try to prevent it.

Police recently submitted eight years of crime reports to an applied mathematics professor at Santa Clara University, and he is mapping the time, location and recurrence of crimes to help police predict crime and tailor their patrols. It's an emerging, national movement called "predictive policing."

"I think the more you put police in areas where there is more crime, the more efficiently you're policing the city," said George Mohler, the Santa Clara University professor doing the research.

Mohler said the goal is not to arrest more people, but rather to have an officer patrolling a neighborhood so that a car burglary, for example, doesn't happen in the first place.

Zach Friend, a crime analyst for the Santa Cruz Police Department, said he approached Mohler about the project after reading news reports about predictive policing in the fall.

In November, Friend and Santa Cruz police leaders met with Mohler and gave him data from 2002 to 2009 - as well as the city's 2010 data this week. The data focused on property crimes, including the time, date and location of home burglaries, vehicle burglaries and stolen vehicles.

"The overall model is based on the belief that crime is not random. So with enough data points, you could predict where and when it will happen," Friend said.

Mohler added, "We don't view criminals as deviants, it's people who see an opportunity and take advantage of it."

If a person sees a laptop computer in a parked car, for example, and a police officer is driving by at the same time, the thief backs off. The crime is prevented, the person is not arrested and the police are more efficient on patrol.

Mohler earned a doctorate at UCLA, where he crunched numbers with crime data from the Los Angeles and Long Beach police departments. He expects to return his results to Santa Cruz police in the coming months, and police will decide how to change patrol locations and times within officers' usual shifts.

The changes will start in February at the soonest, police said.

"We're the only police agency in the country doing it," Friend said.

Santa Cruz police now use maps of reported crime, crime statistics, neighborhood complaints and old-fashioned officer intuition to combat crime. In the new system, police anticipate that officers will receive instructions in their roll call meetings before each shift to talk about places and times to perform extra checks, Friend said. Supervisors also might discuss predicted spikes in crime.

Mohler, a 29-year-old assistant professor, said he is doing the work at no charge. He said he wants to build his repertoire of published research.

Mohler said burglars who successfully steal from a home or car often return there because they knew it worked. No one was at a home when it was broken into at 2 p.m., for instance, and burglars often use that knowledge to return or break in to another house in the neighborhood.

In Santa Cruz, Mohler has found that repeat car and home burglaries tend to happen four days after a crime. In Los Angeles and Long Beach, he said, the recurrence takes seven to eight days, Mohler said.

It's unclear why, but Mohler said that kind of data could help police.

"Whether a person returns four days later or six days later might not be intuitive," he said.

Santa Cruz police first in nation to try Santa Clara University model to predict crime01/14/2011Alameda Times-Star

SANTA CRUZ -- Santa Cruz police are poised to be the first in the nation to use a new statistical model to predict crime and try to prevent it.

Police recently submitted eight years of crime reports to an applied mathematics professor at Santa Clara University, and he is mapping the time, location and recurrence of crimes to help police predict crime and tailor their patrols. It's an emerging, national movement called "predictive policing."

"I think the more you put police in areas where there is more crime, the more efficiently you're policing the city," said George Mohler, the Santa Clara University professor doing the research.

Mohler said the goal is not to arrest more people, but rather to have an officer patrolling a neighborhood so that a car burglary, for example, doesn't happen in the first place.

Zach Friend, a crime analyst for the Santa Cruz Police Department, said he approached Mohler about the project after reading news reports about predictive policing in the fall.

In November, Friend and Santa Cruz police leaders met with Mohler and gave him data from 2002 to 2009 - as well as the city's 2010 data this week. The data focused on property crimes, including the time, date and location of home burglaries, vehicle burglaries and stolen vehicles.

"The overall model is based on the belief that crime is not random. So with enough data points, you could predict where and when it will happen," Friend said.

Mohler added, "We don't view criminals as deviants, it's people who see an opportunity and take advantage of it."

If a person sees a laptop computer in a parked car, for example, and a police officer is driving by at the same time, the thief backs off. The crime is prevented, the person is not arrested and the police are more efficient on patrol.

Mohler earned a doctorate at UCLA, where he crunched numbers with crime data from the Los Angeles and Long Beach police departments. He expects to return his results to Santa Cruz police in the coming months, and police will decide how to change patrol locations and times within officers' usual shifts.

The changes will start in February at the soonest, police said.

"We're the only police agency in the country doing it," Friend said.

Santa Cruz police now use maps of reported crime, crime statistics, neighborhood complaints and old-fashioned officer intuition to combat crime. In the new system, police anticipate that officers will receive instructions in their roll call meetings before each shift to talk about places and times to perform extra checks, Friend said. Supervisors also might discuss predicted spikes in crime.

Mohler, a 29-year-old assistant professor, said he is doing the work at no charge. He said he wants to build his repertoire of published research.

Mohler said burglars who successfully steal from a home or car often return there because they knew it worked. No one was at a home when it was broken into at 2 p.m., for instance, and burglars often use that knowledge to return or break in to another house in the neighborhood.

In Santa Cruz, Mohler has found that repeat car and home burglaries tend to happen four days after a crime. In Los Angeles and Long Beach, he said, the recurrence takes seven to eight days, Mohler said.

It's unclear why, but Mohler said that kind of data could help police.

"Whether a person returns four days later or six days later might not be intuitive," he said.

Wealth Matters: Private Stock Deals Are That Way for a Reason | View Clip01/14/2011New York Times - Online

Private share offerings occur every week in the United States. By one estimate, they are nearly as common as public security sales.

But news that Goldman Sachs would sell private shares in Facebook, the worlds largest social networking site and a private company, was met with some criticism that the offering was only open to the richest of the rich.

But that is the audience for all these private offerings. In reality, they are the only people who could and should invest in such high-risk private deals. Sure, the deals might offer phenomenal returns, but they might also be worthless. Only the wealthy can absorb that level of loss.

The private offerings are often narrow or targeted investments, said David Bailin, global head of managed investments at Citi Private Bank. Its a highly concentrated investment, probably not that liquid, but its how its designed. Yet both advisers and academics said the bigger issue with private placements was being overlooked in the hoopla over Goldman and Facebook that private placements were not intended to be liquid like public securities, and people who thought otherwise could face unexpected losses.

Whether or not you were able to get into the Facebook offering, here is a look at the state of the private market and the risks inherent in it.

They are not required to have extensive disclosures, though many have prospectuses that rival public offerings in detail. But the allure is always the same: access to something that could offer high returns in exchange for high risk. We do these all the time with hedge funds and private equity, and theyre no different than what Goldman is doing with Facebook, said Tony Roth, head of investment strategy and wealth planning at UBS. Were just giving them more information than Goldman gave out on the Facebook offering.

On the contrary, John C. Coffee Jr., a professor at Columbia University Law School and director of its Center on Corporate Governance, said he found the information Goldman gave clients to be more than adequate. They gave investors a 100-page memorandum, which theyre not obligated to do, he said. Much has been said about the high fees that Goldman is charging for the Facebook deal a 4 percent placement fee and 5 percent of gains. A more standard placement fee is 1 to 2 percent. But Goldman has disclosed those fees, and investors can decide if they want to pay it and invest.

So what is the allure of the deal, since the profitability has been roundly questioned? Meir Statman, professor of finance at Santa Clara University and author of What Investors Really Want (McGraw-Hill, 2010), said people willing to invest in the Facebook offering were being lured by attraction status. He said investing in an offering with such a high, $2 million minimum investment conveyed to others that the investor was wealthy, just as hanging a Picasso in your house is more than a way to cover wall space. You wont go out and tell people you invest for status, but you will go out and tell them that youre a socially responsible investor, Mr. Statman said. Its neither part of risk or return assessment, but some people care very deeply about it and theyre willing to give up return for it. AUDIENCE Private placements certainly are not for every investor. Nor should they be.

But the risk is that people who do not have enough wealth to absorb the potential losses are able to invest in them. To be considered an accredited investor by the , a person either has to have a net worth of $1 million or an annual income in excess of $200,000 ($300,000 for couples) over the last two years. Mr. Coffee said there was a provision in the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill to increase these limits, but it was removed.

This was a risky deletion because the minimum to get into any private placement is $250,000. In theory, an accredited investor with $1 million in the bank could be investing alongside someone with $100 million. But losing that $250,000 investment is going to mean different things to those two people. If someone is worth $30 million and they spend $2 million on the Facebook deal and it goes to zero, you still have bread and butter on your table, Mr. Statman said. If I have $2 million and put it all in it, that would be stupid. Beyond status, there are rational reasons to go into or avoid a private placement.

It could be a good investment if the manager of the offering could exert control over the companys direction, Mr. Bailin said. This is something that venture capital companies do all the time, though it is hard to imagine that Goldman will have much say in what

Will the LSAT become optional? | View Clip01/14/2011Environmental Law Professors

« Who is using Westlaw Next and who isn't? | Main

From the National Law Journal:

The Law School Admissions Test is a rite of passage for aspiring lawyers, but could go from mandatory to voluntary under proposed changes to the American Bar Association's law school accreditation standards.

The committee reviewing the standards is leaning toward dropping the rule that law schools require J.D. applicants to take a 'valid and reliable admission test,' chairman Donald Polden, dean of Santa Clara University School of Law, said on Wednesday.

'A substantial portion of the committee believes that provision should be repealed,' said Polden, noting that about 10 law schools already have waivers from the ABA allowing them to admit some students who haven't taken the LSAT.

Much of the committee's LSAT debate has focused on the proper role of the ABA in the regulation of law school admissions, said Loyola University Chicago School of Law Dean David Yellen, who sits on the standards review committee.

'I think an accrediting body ought to ensure that law schools are producing students who can enter the practice,' he said, noting that he personally is on the fence about the LSAT requirement. 'Is taking a standardized test the only way to determine if someone should be able to go to law school? Schools ought to be able to decide how they want to admit students.'

The Law School Admissions Test is a rite of passage for aspiring lawyers, but could go from mandatory to voluntary under proposed changes to the American Bar Association's law school accreditation standards.

The committee reviewing the standards is leaning toward dropping the rule that law schools require J.D. applicants to take a "valid and reliable admission test," chairman Donald Polden, dean of Santa Clara University School of Law, said on Wednesday."A substantial portion of the committee believes that provision should be repealed," said Polden, noting that about 10 law schools already have waivers from the ABA allowing them to admit some students who haven't taken the LSAT.

Much of the committee's LSAT debate has focused on the proper role of the ABA in the regulation of law school admissions, said Loyola University Chicago School of Law Dean David Yellen, who sits on the standards review committee."I think an accrediting body ought to ensure that law schools are producing students who can enter the practice," he said, noting that he personally is on the fence about the LSAT requirement. "Is taking a standardized test the only way to determine if someone should be able to go to law school? Schools ought to be able to decide how they want to admit students."Yellen said committee members have also questioned whether the ABA should be making rules that financially benefit the Law School Admission Councilthe organization that administers the LSAT."It's a wealthy institution," Yellen said. "So many people take the LSAT. Why is the ABA ensuring its future success?"The admission council has not taken a position on the committee's proposal, said spokeswomen Wendy Margolis, but council President Daniel Bernstine did address the committee during a meeting last year. "It would be inappropriate and premature of us to comment before a decision has been made by the committee," Margolis said.Dropping the LSAT requirement would be unlikely to prompt many schools to abandon the test. Both Polden and Yellen believe that most schools would continue to require the LSAT, in part because it is the most reliable way to measure applicants against each other and make merit-based financial aid decisions."I think most schools would keep it," Yellen said. "It gives you an indication of how prepared people are for law school. On the other side, getting rid of the test would be yet another way for law schools to game the U.S. News rankings, but I don't think the ABA should take U.S. News into account when making these decisions."The committee is still in the relatively early stages of discussing the LSAT. It is closer to finalizing its recommendations in several other areas, including so-called "student learning outcomes." Law schools would be evaluated based on what students learn rather than input measures, such as the size of law libraries or faculty-to-student ratios. That matter was discussed during a two-day committee meeting last weekend.

The learning outcomes standards should be ready for presentation to the ABA's Council on Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar in the summer, Polden said. That council must approve all changes to the accreditation standards.

The committee is still debating other controversial topics, including security of position and tenure for faculty and law school governance.

The draft standards would require law schools to define their educational mission and learning goals for graduating studentsa significant departure from the existing standards, which rely on more easily quantifiable measures such as bar passage rates. The draft would require schools to develop assessment methods that would "provide meaningful feedback to students." The schools would assess whether students are attaining the stated educational goals, although the proposal does not specifically define what those goals should be or how they should be measured."We are trying to make sure that as we move into this very different way of evaluating schools by assessing student learning outcomes, that we give them a lot of flexibility," Polden said. "The provision is quite general, but the idea is for schools to have leeway."Too much leeway could be a problem, said Ian Weinstein, the associate dean for clinical programs at Fordham University School of Law and the president of the Clinical Legal Education Association. The association has advocated for stronger, more detailed standards for the learning outcomes of individual students. The committee draft places more focus on the effectiveness of the law school as a whole, rather than on individual students, he said."The current version gives schools a lot of room to define mission and outcomes," Weinstein said. The clinical association "has expressed real concern about that all along. In our view, we'd like those learning outcomes to be considerably more specific."Weinstein believes it would be imprudent to move too far from the existing measures such as faculty-to-student ratios if the new standards don't create strong enough output requirements.

One change the association supports is beefing up the existing requirement that all students take at least one externship, clinic or simulation course.

The committee is still working on the standards that pertain to tenure and security of position, but members largely agree that tenure should be encouraged if not required by the ABA, Polden said. The committee has interpreted the existing accreditation standards to mean that tenure is not a requirement, although many legal academics disagree with that interpretation.

The committee is struggling with changes to law school governance standards, Polden said. It is considering a new standard that law schools require full-time faculty members to participate in governance and decision-making. This would help to eliminate the exclusion of some clinical, legal writing and other non-tenure track positions from hiring decisions and other governance issues, he said.

The committee will hold a public hearing on all of these proposals during its next meeting April 2 in Chicago. Those proposals are posted on the ABA's Web site. Individuals and groups wishing to comment will be asked to register ahead of time to speak during the three-hour public comment session, Polden said.

- It comes to nobodys surprise that investors don't always make the right decisions. When their stock picks go South, they are left with nothing but losses and regret. Do these investors make wrong choices because they lack the necessary knowledge and expertise? Not necessarily. In fact, what really keeps the investor from high stock returns is the investor himself, as Meir Statman, a behavioral economist, explains in his book . Personality, emotions, culture, gender and many more factors can keep an asset manager from making the rational and smart decisions that are needed to yield high returns, Statman says in a recent interview with Insitutional Investor writer Franziska Scheven.

While institutional investors have a slight advantage over individual financiers because they act within a structure of an institution, such as a committee or a forum, and are therefore checked and balanced before taking action, Statman argues that both types of investors tend to be overconfident. A professor of Finance at the Leavey School of Business and the Santa Clara University, as well as Visiting Professor of Tilburg University in the Netherlands, Statman has long been attempting to understand how investors and managers make financial decisions and how these choices are reflected in financial markets. The issues he addresses include cognitive errors, hindsight errors, emotions, aspirations, risk, fear and regret of investors and how these factors influence investors' decision making.

Institutional Investor: What can institutional investors discover about investor behavior that would help them to make smarter, more rational decisions to achieve investment success?

Statman: Asset managers know behavior finance enough to protect themselves from their own errors. But they use their knowledge of the errors of others to design products that people like, but short changed them in terms of return. If individual investors, for example , think that it is easy to beat the market, then they are being offered mutual funds or a variety of derivatives that look like they have only gains and no risk attached.

Some of the issues that institutional investors face are similar to those of individual investors. For example, institutional investors find it as difficult as individual investors to cut their losses and to realize them. The difference, however, is that institutional investors are generally aware of their reluctance to realize losses and so they prepare themselves by creating structures within their company. They are generally a step ahead in that they understand the kinds of cognitive errors and emotions that they face.

For example, traders might have a rule enforced by supervisors that all positions must be closed by the end of the trading day. This way they cannot really hide losses and carry them day after day. Would you explain how age, gender, genetics and personality affect investments? We know that personality affects investors and how they make decisions. There are people who are conscientious, who always come to meetings on time, have their paperwork set and do not find themselves at a loss when it comes to filing their taxes. Those people also tend to be more risk averse than other people. They are more careful, but sometimes they get to be too cautious.

- It comes to nobodys surprise that investors don't always make the right decisions. When their stock picks go South, they are left with nothing but losses and regret. Do these investors make wrong choices because they lack the necessary knowledge and expertise? Not necessarily. In fact, what really keeps the investor from high stock returns is the investor himself, as Meir Statman, a behavioral economist, explains in his book . Personality, emotions, culture, gender and many more factors can keep an asset manager from making the rational and smart decisions that are needed to yield high returns, Statman says in a recent interview with Insitutional Investor writer Franziska Scheven.

While institutional investors have a slight advantage over individual financiers because they act within a structure of an institution, such as a committee or a forum, and are therefore checked and balanced before taking action, Statman argues that both types of investors tend to be overconfident. A professor of Finance at the Leavey School of Business and the Santa Clara University, as well as Visiting Professor of Tilburg University in the Netherlands, Statman has long been attempting to understand how investors and managers make financial decisions and how these choices are reflected in financial markets. The issues he addresses include cognitive errors, hindsight errors, emotions, aspirations, risk, fear and regret of investors and how these factors influence investors' decision making.

Institutional Investor: What can institutional investors discover about investor behavior that would help them to make smarter, more rational decisions to achieve investment success?

Statman: Asset managers know behavior finance enough to protect themselves from their own errors. But they use their knowledge of the errors of others to design products that people like, but short changed them in terms of return. If individual investors, for example , think that it is easy to beat the market, then they are being offered mutual funds or a variety of derivatives that look like they have only gains and no risk attached.

Some of the issues that institutional investors face are similar to those of individual investors. For example, institutional investors find it as difficult as individual investors to cut their losses and to realize them. The difference, however, is that institutional investors are generally aware of their reluctance to realize losses and so they prepare themselves by creating structures within their company. They are generally a step ahead in that they understand the kinds of cognitive errors and emotions that they face.

For example, traders might have a rule enforced by supervisors that all positions must be closed by the end of the trading day. This way they cannot really hide losses and carry them day after day. Would you explain how age, gender, genetics and personality affect investments? We know that personality affects investors and how they make decisions. There are people who are conscientious, who always come to meetings on time, have their paperwork set and do not find themselves at a loss when it comes to filing their taxes. Those people also tend to be more risk averse than other people. They are more careful, but sometimes they get to be too cautious.

Jalil Anibaba, from Davis, has been taken in the first round of the Major League Soccer draft by the Chicago Fire.

Anibaba, 22, who played for University of North Carolina, was the ninth player taken overall in Thursday's Major League Soccer Draft.

Anibaba graduated from Davis High School in, 2007, During Anibabas senior year at Davis High School, he was named the California High School Player of the Year. He was also awarded the Delta Valley Conference MVP award.

He scored 16 goals and and 12 assists to lead the Blue Devils to a 22-1-2 record.

After high school Anibaba attended Santa Clara University, where he was West Coast Conference Freshman of the Year. He earned All-WCC honors in 2008 and 2009. He then transferred to the University of North Carolina.

He was named to the first team All-Atlantic Coast Conference during the 2010 season.

High: President Obama speaks at the Tucson shootings memorial service.

Sarah Palin`s latest controversial remarks examined.

Spec: Shootings; Arizona; Barack Obama; Politics; Sarah Palin

BETTY NGUYEN: A Time to Heal: President Obama tries to comfort a city in shock, as Tucson buries the youngest victim of Saturday`s rampage.War of Words: Sarah Palin sparked another controversy with her first comments on the tragedy in Tucson.

And, Voice of Reason: The man who went from homeless to Hollywood, now goes to rehab.

This is the CBS MORNING NEWS for Thursday, January 13, 2011.

Good morning, everybody. And thanks for joining us. I`m Betty Nguyen.

At an emotional memorial service for the Tucson shooting victims, President Obama was both consoler and motivator. Speaking last night in Tucson, Mister Obama called on Americans to think about how they treat one another, and he told the crowd, quote, I think we can do better. The President visited with victims and their families and today, funeral services will be held for the youngest victim. Sandra Hughes is live in Tucson. Good morning, Sandra.

SANDRA HUGHES: Good morning, Betty. Well, some twenty-seven thousand people came together to hear the President last night. Now today begins the painful process here in Tucson, funerals for the fallen.

(Begin VT)

SANDRA HUGHES: Friends and family are expected to pack this Tucson church today for the funeral of nine-year-old Christina Green. The youngest victim of Saturday`s shooting rampage was remembered last night at a public memorial led by President Obama.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: She showed an appreciation for life, uncommon for a girl her age.

SANDRA HUGHES: In an emotional address before thousands, he called on Americans to honor all those killed.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: We may not be able to stop all evil in the world, but I know that how we treat one another that`s entirely up to us.

SANDRA HUGHES: The President also revealed, just a few minutes after visiting Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in the hospital, she opened her eyes for the first time since being shot.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: And she knows that we are rooting for her through what is undoubtedly going to be a difficult journey.

SANDRA HUGHES: Also difficult will be the funerals for the six fallen victims. Christina Green`s will be the first this afternoon. In honor of the little girl born on 9/11, the Ground Zero flag will be here on display.

Authorities are learning more about the events leading up to the shooting. Hours before the attack, police also pulled suspect Jared Loughner over for running a red light, but let him go with a warning.

RICHARD KASTIGAR (Bureau Chief, Pima County): None of the interactions would leave any reasonable police officer to conclude that this guy would grab a gun and go shoot twenty people.

SANDRA HUGHES: Investigators are still searching for missing clues, including a black bag Loughner was seen with on the morning of the rampage.

(End VT)

SANDRA HUGHES: Now a federal judge from San Diego has been appointed to the case, that is, after every judge in Arizona recused themselves. Of course, that`s because one of the victims in the case was a federal judge. Betty.

BETTY NGUYEN: All right. Sandra Hughes joining us live in Tucson this morning. Sandra, thank you.

The House unanimously passed a resolution honoring Gabrielle Giffords and the other victims of the Tucson shootings following a day of tributes and comments.

REPRESENTATIVE JOHN BOEHNER (Speaker of the House): This is a time for the House to lock arms in prayer for the fallen and the wounded and then resolve-- to carry on a dialogue of democracy.

REPRESENTATIVE LAURA RICHARDSON (D-California): It`s not okay to spit, to say racial slurs, to say reload or to arm in reference to debate.

REPRESENTATIVE LOUIE GOHMERT (R-Texas): This is no time for assigning blame to anyone but the gunman.

BETTY NGUYEN: One hundred fifty members spoke Wednesday. The resolution also says the House will not be intimidated by such acts of violence.

There`s been an arrest following a threat to another member of Congress. Jim McDermott is a Democrat from Washington State. A Palm Springs, California man Charles Habermann was arrested Wednesday. Prosecutors say he left two voicemail messages at McDermott`s Seattle office in December. Habermann allegedly threatened to kill McDermott, his family and friends because he was upset about the extension of tax breaks for the wealthy.

Sarah Palin has found herself in another controversy. The former vice presidential candidate sparked outcry when she addressed the Tucson shooting in an internet video on Wednesday. Preeti Arla is in Washington. All right, Preeti, right is down for us.

PREETI ARLA: Well, Betty, Sarah Palin is known for her famous sayings. We heard many in the past, like Don`t Retreat, Reload. And now she`s drawn into the debate over heated political rhetoric in the aftermath of the Tucson shooting. She hasn`t had much to say until now and it`s created quite a stir.

(Begin VT)

SARAH PALIN (Former Governor of Alaska; Facebook): We know violence isn`t the answer. When we take up our arms, we`re talking about our vote.

PREETI ARLA: In the eight-minute video posted online, Palin defends herself against critics who`ve accused her of using inflammatory, even violent words and imagery in last year`s campaign, especially a map that used what appears to be the crosshairs of a gun to target some Democrats, including Gabrielle Giffords.

SARAH PALIN: Acts of monstrous criminality stand on their own. They begin and end with the criminals who commit them. Not collectively, with all the citizens of a state. Not with those who listen to talk radio, not with maps of swing districts. Journalists and pundits should not manufacture a blood libel that serves only to incite the very hatred and violence that they purport to condemn.

PREETI ARLA: But she ignited a new controversy by using the term blood libel, which refers to false allegations from the Middle Ages that Jews murdered Christian children to use their blood in religious ceremonies. Palin`s remark brought instant condemnation from the Anti-Defamation League.

RABBI MARVIN HEIR (Simon Wiesenthal): Jews have paid a terrible price. They were accused falsely. Their children were murdered because of these libels.

PREETI ARLA: But some political analysts say the remark was straight out of Sarah Palin`s political playbook.

MARC AMBINDER (CBS News Chief Political Analyst): She will often make her case in the most explicit, most inflammatory, most-attention getting way. That`s possible.

(End VT)

PREETI ARLA: One other thing political analysts have marveled that is Sarah Palin`s ability to jump into national debates when, where and how she chooses. Betty.

BETTY NGUYEN: Preeti Arla in Washington for us this morning. Preeti, thank you.

Also, this morning, New England is digging out from record amounts of snow, thanks to a snowstorm that paralyzed the South before heading north. Schools remain closed and travel is disrupted. At one point, more than one hundred thousand people were without power in Massachusetts where the governor declared a state of emergency. Michael Herzenberg reports.

(Begin VT)

MICHAEL HERZENBERG: The snow outside Boston was heavy enough to topple this tree right through the roof and into a bedroom where a teenager was sleeping.

MAN #1: He told me, he thought he was having a dream. And he woke-- and when he-- when he woke up, he was covered with all kinds of insulation and everything.

MICHAEL HERZENBERG: Parts of Massachusetts were expecting up to thirty inches and more than two feet dropped on Connecticut. Armies of plows hit the streets, but even so police response to hundreds of traffic accidents. Local officials can`t remember a worse winter.

MAYOR MARK BOUGHTEN (Danbury, Connecticut): We`ve had over forty inches, which equals about the total we`ll get in a typical winter.

MICHAEL HERZENBERG: And in New Jersey, it was another back-breaking morning of digging out. The third storm in less than three weeks.

New York City got about nine inches, but people are feeling like they got off easy. Compared to the Christmas blizzard, this storm was just a messy inconvenience.

MAN #2: It will work its way out. It`s the weather and it`s winter, so what did-- what could you expect but slosh and snow and cold weather.

MICHAEL HERZENBERG: The city was heavily criticized for its slow response after the last storm. So this time, plows were on the move all night to clear the roads and the runways. But thousands of flights and trains are canceled or delayed.

WOMAN: They told us that all Amtrak`s were canceled from Boston-- New York to Boston.

MICHAEL HERZENBERG: This latest storm has created an unusual situation in the U.S. Except for Florida, there`s now snow on the ground in every single state.

Michael Herzenberg for CBS News, New York.

(End VT)

BETTY NGUYEN: With all this cold winter weather socking much of the nation, you may embrace this next story. The government says last year was the warmest year on record, tied with 2005. Many scientists blame greenhouse gases produced by industry and engines.

One Australian official says there is so much damage from the widespread flooding it is like the aftermath of a war. Floodwaters crested just below record levels in Brisbane, Wednesday. Thousands of homes were swamped and the city faces years of rebuilding. At least, twenty-five people have been killed by the flooding since November.

In Brazil, north of Rio de Janeiro heavy rains caused huge mudslides that buried small towns. More than two hundred fifty people were killed. The search for dozens missing continues today. About a month`s worth of rain fell in just twenty-four hours on Tuesday.

Just ahead on the MORNING NEWS, rapper 50 Cent gets investigators a Twitter in a stock probe.

Plus, bus brawl: Three young women being sought for this fight caught on tape.

This is the CBS MORNING NEWS.

(ANNOUNCEMENTS)

BETTY NGUYEN: Just-released video shows how an ordinary bus ride suddenly turned violent last month in Lincoln, Nebraska. Ouch. Two women attacked a third, while one of the attackers` small children wandered in the aisle, nearly getting trampled. The driver calls police, but all three women and the kids leave before the cops arrive.

On the CBS MoneyWatch, stocks in Asia got a lift this morning. Ashley Morrison is here in New York with the latest on that. Good morning, Ashley.

ASHLEY MORRISON: And, good morning to you, Betty. Well, Asian markets were higher as worries eased about Europe`s economy. Japan`s Nikkei gained three quarters of a percent to an eight-month closing high, while Hong Kong`s Hang Seng added about half a percent.

Two thousand eleven is posed to become the worst year of the foreclosure crisis. Lenders are expected to repossess more homes this year than any other since the housing meltdown began in 2006. About five million borrowers are at least two months behind on their mortgage payments. Banks seized more than one million homes last year. That was the most since 2005.

Rapper 50 Cent made nearly nine million dollars on Tuesday by tweeting. But now the hip-hop star may be in trouble with the Security and Exchange Commission. The rapper, whose real name is Curtis Jackson encouraged his 3.8 million Twitter followers to invest in a money-losing company he owned shares of. Hours later the company`s stock surged nearly three hundred percent. The SEC is investigating whether 50 Cent made-- manipulated the stock price.

And the second winner of last week`s Mega Million jackpot has come forward, sort of. Idaho`s lottery director says her name is Holly Lahti and she`s a, quote delightful young lady. She will split the three-hundred-and-eighty- million-dollar jackpot with the Washington State couple who claimed their share last week. But the new winner has not shown her face and says she wants the media to respect her privacy. And Betty, I can`t really blame her. It doesn`t pay to let everyone know you just won--

BETTY NGUYEN: No. No.

ASHLEY MORRISON: --millions and millions of dollars.

BETTY NGUYEN: Just take your money and run. All right, thanks, Ashley.

ASHLEY MORRISON: Quietly.

BETTY NGUYEN: Joining us live here in New York.

Life is still moving quickly for Ted Williams, the homeless man with the golden voice. Now he is headed for rehab. In less than two weeks, Williams has gone from sleeping on the streets to an instant celebrity with multiple job offers. But his daughter says he is back to drinking heavily.

JENAY WILLIAMS (Dr. Phil, CBS Television Distribution): Every single night, he gets drunk. And he`s telling the world and telling everybody, making them believe that he`s been sober for two and a half years.

BETTY NGUYEN: Williams promised Doctor Phil that he will enter rehab for both alcohol and drug addiction.

Straight ahead your Thursday morning weather and in sports, all good things come to an end. We`ll show you how it happened to the Mighty Blue Devils of Duke.

(ANNOUNCEMENTS)

BETTY NGUYEN: (AUDIO CUT)--for a check of the national forecast. The latest satellite picture shows rain and snow in the Northwest. And the Northeast is seeing some clearing from yesterday`s storm. Now later today, snow makes a return to the upper sections of the Midwest. In the Southeast, a clear and chilly morning warms up as the day goes on. And the Northern Rockies and Plains stay in a deep freeze.

In sports, a huge upset in college basketball. After twenty-five straight wins going back to last year, number one Duke fell last night to unranked Florida State. Derwin Kitchen scored twenty-two points for the Seminoles, seventeen of them in the second half. Chris Singleton added eighteen as the Seminoles beat the Blue Devils, 66 to 61. And the Tallahassee crowd flooded onto the court in celebration.

Now to the NBA and another upset. In Los Angeles, Dwyane Wade and LeBron James put on their usual show for the Heat. But Blake Griffin in the Clippers led nearly all the way to a 111-105 victory, ending Miami`s thirteen-game winning streak.

Heat fans got a scare in the fourth quarter as James sprained his left ankle. Momentum carries him off court but he hobbled back in time to sink a three-pointer then limped to the bench. James may not play tonight in Denver.

When we return, another look at this morning`s top stories. And are Chinese mothers superior, a controversial new book that`s got parents everywhere talking.

(ANNOUNCEMENTS)

BETTY NGUYEN: Here`s another look at this morning`s top stories.

Funeral services will be held today for Christina Green, the youngest victim in the Tucson shooting. Last night, President Obama spoke at a memorial service for the victims.

The President also said that wounded Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords opened her eyes. She`s expected to survive but the extent of her recovery remains unclear.

A new book about parenting is causing a firestorm. It`s titled Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. Author Amy Chua says Chinese mothers raise their children better than western moms. Kit Doe (ph) of our San Francisco station KPIX reports.

(Begin VT)

SEELING CHEUNG (Mother): Spelling of the week, let`s practice.

KIT DOE: Seeling Cheung is proof that all Chinese mothers are not created equal.

SEELING CHEUNG: I know what I believe and I believe in choices.

KIT DOE: But a controversial article in the Wall Street Journal titled Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior has parents everywhere talking. In it, author Amy Chua promotes an ultra-strict parenting style, prohibiting sleepovers, play dates, TV and computer games. Chua says her children were never allowed to get anything less than an A. And they were forced to play piano or violin, sometimes for hours without meal or bathroom breaks.

TOM PLANTE: There are risks involved in any sort of parenting style. If you`re too permissive, there`s risks there. If you`re too strict and controlling, there`s risks there. Which risks are you willing to take and not take and what`s consistent with you as a person?

KIT DOE: As for Cheung, her kids Jaden and Clarice are in a Montessori school which promotes personal choice.

SEELING CHEUNG: Cultivating creativity in a child upon nurturing their whole being, so it`s-- it`s way more than just academic focus. Very importantly, it`s about keeping choices.

KIT DOE: In San Jose, Kit Doe, CBS 5.

(End VT)

BETTY NGUYEN: I`m Betty Nguyen. This is the CBS MORNING NEWS.

(ANNOUNCEMENTS)

BETTY NGUYEN: President Obama is calling upon the country to unite in the wake of the Arizona shootings. At last night`s memorial service for the victims, Mister Obama celebrated the youngest person killed in the attack, nine-year-old Christina Green, who will be laid to rest today.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: In Christina we see all of our children--so curious, so trusting, so energetic, so full of magic. Here was a young girl who was just becoming aware of our democracy, just beginning to understand the obligations of citizenship, just starting to glimpse the fact that some day she, too, might play a part in shaping her nation`s future. She saw all this through the eyes of a child, undimmed by the cynicism or vitriol that we adults all too often just take for granted. I want to live up to her expectations.

Christina was given to us on September 11th, 2001. One of fifty babies born that day to be pictured in a book called Faces of Hope. On either side of her photo in that book were simple wishes for a child`s life. I hope you help those in need, read one. I hope you know all the words to the National Anthem and sing it with your hand over your heart. I hope you jump in rain puddles. If there are rain puddles in heaven, Christina is jumping in them today. And here, on this earth, here on this earth we place our hands over our hearts, and we commit ourselves as Americans to forging a country that is forever worthy of her gentle, happy spirit. May god bless and keep those we`ve lost in restful and eternal peace. May he love and watch over the survivors, and may he bless the United States of America.

BETTY NGUYEN: Christina Green`s funeral will be held today.

Coming up a little bit later on The EARLY SHOW, more on last night`s memorial and we will hear from a former girlfriend of the alleged shooter. Also, home prices have fallen again. We`ll tell you what it means if you`re a buyer or a seller. And an exclusive interview with reality TV star about Camille Grammer about her divorce with actor Kelsey Grammer.

That`s the CBS MORNING NEWS for this Thursday. Thanks for watching. I`m Betty Nguyen. Have a great day.

END

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Is the LSAT Going to Go the Way of the Dodo? | View Clip01/13/2011Business Insider - Online, The

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The LSAT? The LSAT, you say? We don't need no stinkin' LSAT!

According to this piece in the National Law Journal by Karen Sloan, the American Bar Association is thinking about making the test, a “rite of passage for aspiring lawyers” for decades, voluntary instead of mandatory.

Wrote Sloan:

The committee reviewing the standards is leaning toward dropping the rule that law schools require J.D. applicants to take a “valid and reliable admission test,” chairman Donald Polden, dean of Santa Clara University School of Law, said on Wednesday.

“A substantial portion of the committee believes that provision should be repealed,” said Polden, noting that about 10 law schools already have waivers from the ABA allowing them to admit some students who haven't taken the LSAT.

Much of the committee's LSAT debate has focused on the proper role of the ABA in the regulation of law school admissions, said Loyola University Chicago School of Law Dean David Yellen, who sits on the standards review committee.

“I think an accrediting body ought to ensure that law schools are producing students who can enter the practice,” he said . . . “Is taking a standardized test the only way to determine if someone should be able to go to law school? Schools ought to be able to decide how they want to admit students.”

Is the LSAT Going to Go the Way of the Dodo? - Law Blog - WSJ | View Clip01/13/2011Law Blog - Wall Street Journal Blogs

By Ashby Jones

The LSAT? The LSAT, you say? We don't need no stinkin' LSAT!

this piece in the National Law Journal by Karen Sloan, the American Bar Association is thinking about making the test, a "rite of passage for aspiring lawyers" for decades, voluntary instead of mandatory.

Wrote Sloan:

The committee reviewing the standards is leaning toward dropping the rule that law schools require J.D. applicants to take a "valid and reliable admission test," chairman Donald Polden, dean of Santa Clara University School of Law, said on Wednesday.

"A substantial portion of the committee believes that provision should be repealed," said Polden, noting that about 10 law schools already have waivers from the ABA allowing them to admit some students who haven't taken the LSAT.

Much of the committee's LSAT debate has focused on the proper role of the ABA in the regulation of law school admissions, said Loyola University Chicago School of Law Dean David Yellen, who sits on the standards review committee.

"I think an accrediting body ought to ensure that law schools are producing students who can enter the practice," he said . . . "Is taking a standardized test the only way to determine if someone should be able to go to law school? Schools ought to be able to decide how they want to admit students."

At the same time, some think that dropping the LSAT requirement wouldn't do all that much, that schools would still be inclined to continue requiring the test, "in part because it is the most reliable way to measure applicants against each other and make merit-based financial aid decisions."

The Wall Street Journal's Law Blog covers the notable legal cases, trends and personalities of interest to the business community. Ashby Jones is the lead writer of the blog, which includes contributions from reporters of the WSJ's Law Bureau, led by Joanna Chung. Ashby, who has covered the legal and business worlds for over a decade as a journalist, has also worked as a litigator at a law firm and clerked for a federal judge. Have a comment or tip? Write to

Justice Kagan Pens First Opinion, an 8-1 Win for Credit Card Companies Arizona Mulling Law to Keep Church From Picketing (Another) Funeral

Would-be law students may not have to go through the ordeal of the Law School Admission Test if a proposal by an ABA committee is adopted.

Currently, accreditation rules require law schools to ask applicants for results of a "valid and reliable admission test,” the National Law Journal reports. But that may change, says Santa Clara University law school dean Donald Polden, the chairman of an ABA committee reviewing the standards.

A “substantial portion” of the ABA committee believes the rule should be repealed, Polden told the NLJ. He pointed out that about 10 law schools already admit some students who haven't taken the test under waivers granted by the ABA.

Even if the rule is dropped, Polden believes that most law schools will still require the LSAT as a way to differentiate among applicants and to make financial-aid decisions.

SANTA CLARA, Calif. (KGO) -- The latest job outlook looks bright for this year's college graduates. Companies are once again hiring and you don't have to be an engineering specialist to get one.

Nationwide, tens of thousands of college students are already starting their job search.

"I hope I can get a job right out of college. We'll see," says Chelsea Verhasselt from the class of 2011.

That's why these students are trying to get a jump start at Santa Clara University's job fair. This year 70 companies are present and all have jobs to offer.

"Employers are more convinced that the economy is on a steady path upwards," says Santa Clara Career Center director Elspeth Rossetti.

According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers, the 2011 job outlook for new graduates is good. Companies plan to hire 13.5 percent more graduates with a bachelor's degree than last year.

"The future is bright at McAfee and we are doing a lot of hiring right now," says Deirdre Gaynor from McAfee.

Big names are at this job fair like McAfee, Apple, Lockheed Martin and some want their future hires to have very specific skills. But these companies aren't just looking for techies. Students with degrees in social sciences, languages, and arts also have a chance at a high tech job.

"It's not just about your academic discipline, it's also being able to talk about your personal traits, the soft skills that you have, the things that aren't evident from the degree you're granted," says Rossetti.

"You can take a marketing background and do something else with it," says Jonathan Ford from Maxim Integrated Products.

"It's a little rough right now, I've applied to maybe 30 jobs at least," says Leslie Henry from the class of 2011.

Regardless, many students are still having a hard time landing a job. Some say staying in school longer may be the best way to deal with the situation.

ABC7is sponsoring a HIREvent job fair with the Job Journal two weeks from now. It's on Wednesday, Jan. 26, from 12 noon to 4 p.m. at the South San Francisco Convention Center on South Airport Boulevard.

SANTA CLARA, Calif. (KGO) -- The latest job outlook looks bright for this year's college graduates. Companies are once again hiring and you don't have to be an engineering specialist to get one.

Nationwide, tens of thousands of college students are already starting their job search.

"I hope I can get a job right out of college. We'll see," says Chelsea Verhasselt from the class of 2011.

That's why these students are trying to get a jump start at Santa Clara University's job fair. This year 70 companies are present and all have jobs to offer.

"Employers are more convinced that the economy is on a steady path upwards," says Santa Clara Career Center director Elspeth Rossetti.

According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers, the 2011 job outlook for new graduates is good. Companies plan to hire 13.5 percent more graduates with a bachelor's degree than last year.

"The future is bright at McAfee and we are doing a lot of hiring right now," says Deirdre Gaynor from McAfee.

Big names are at this job fair like McAfee, Apple, Lockheed Martin and some want their future hires to have very specific skills. But these companies aren't just looking for techies. Students with degrees in social sciences, languages, and arts also have a chance at a high tech job.

"It's not just about your academic discipline, it's also being able to talk about your personal traits, the soft skills that you have, the things that aren't evident from the degree you're granted," says Rossetti.

"You can take a marketing background and do something else with it," says Jonathan Ford from Maxim Integrated Products.

"It's a little rough right now, I've applied to maybe 30 jobs at least," says Leslie Henry from the class of 2011.

Regardless, many students are still having a hard time landing a job. Some say staying in school longer may be the best way to deal with the situation.

ABC7is sponsoring a HIREvent job fair with the Job Journal two weeks from now. It's on Wednesday, Jan. 26, from 12 noon to 4 p.m. at the South San Francisco Convention Center on South Airport Boulevard.

THAT'S NEXT. AN ARTICLE ABOUT PARENTING CREATE AGO REAL CONTROVERSY. SYLVIA: IT CLAIMS THAT CHINESE MOTHERS ARE SUPERIOR TO WESTERN MOMS WHEN IT COMES TO RAISING THEIR CHILDREN BUT SOME CHINESE MOMS DON'T AGREE. LET'S PRACTICE. PROOF ALL CHINESE MOTHERS ARE NOT CREATED EQUAL. I KNOW WHAT I BELIEVE. AND I BELIEVE IN CHOICES. CONTROVERSIAL ARTICLE WHY CHINESE MOTHERS ARE SUPERIOR HAS MANY TALKING. THIS IS AN ULTRA STRICT PEOPLING STYLE PROHIBITING SLEEP OVERS TV AND COMPUTER GAMES. THEY WERE NEVER ABLE TO GET ANYTHING LESS THAN AN A AND FORCED TO PLAY VIOLIN AND PIANO FOR HOURS WITH NO MEAL OR BATHROOM BREAKS. ALSO RAISED IN A STRICT CHINESE FAMILY BUT SAYS THAT PARENTING STYLE IS NOT FOR HER. I CAN DEFINITELY IDENTIFY WITH MANY OF THE PRACTICES IN THE ARTICLE. THIS IS REMARKABLY PROVOCATIVE FOR SURE. DR. PLANT FROM SANTA CLARA UNIVERSITY WARNED AGAINST EXTREME PARENTING. THERE ARE RISKS INVOLVED. IN ANY SORT OF PARENTING STYLE IF ARE YOU TOO PERMISSIVE THERE. IS RISK THERE. IF ARE YOU TOO STRICT AND CONTROLLING THERE, IS RISK THERE. WHICH RISKS ARE WILLING TO TAKE AND NOT TAKE? WHICH IS CONSISTENT WITH YOU AS A PERSON? AS FOR CHUNG HER KIDS ARE IN A MONTESSORI SCHOOL. CULTIVATING CREATIVITY IN THE CHILD. AND NURTURING THE WHOLE BEING. IT IS MORE THAN JUST ACADEMIC FOCUS. IMPORTANTLY IT IS ABOUT GIVING THE CHOICES. PROFESSOR HAS BATTLE HIM OF THE TIGER MOTHER AND FOR WESTERN PARENTS WHO WANT TO USE METHODS THAT CHINESE PARENTS USE TO CREATE MUSICAL PRODUCT GEEZ RICK. AND THEY ARE SETTING UP A SEAT BUMPING AUCTION WHEN ARE YOU ON AN OVER BOOKED FLIGHT. YOU MAY BE IN A BIDDING WAR. DELTA IS TURNING VOLUNTARY SEAT BUMPING PROCEED NEWER ACCURATE AN AUCTION. NOW THEY WILL BE ASKED TO OFFER BIDS ON WHAT COMPENSATION THEY WANT TO GIVE YOU UP THEIR SEATS AND DELTA WILL TAKE THE LOWEST BIDDERS FIRST. SYLVIA: THE TREASURY DEPARTMENT SAYS THAT IT IS OFFERING TO PUT TAX REFUNDS ON PREPAID DEBIT CARDS FOR LOW INCOME TAXPAYERS THAT HAVE NO BANK ACCOUNTS. THE TREASURY WILL SEND LETTERES TO 600,000 HOUSEHOLDS FOR THE WEEK AND THE DEBIT CARDS WILL BE USED TO GET MONEY FROM ATM'S AND TO BUY GOOD AND SERVICES FROM RETAILERS. THE LESSON IN HEALTHY SCHOOL LUNCHES, THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT WILL CHANGE WHAT IS ON THE MENU. MANUEL GALLEGUS SHOWS US THE PROPOSED GUIDELINES. PUBLIC SCHOOL 216 BROOKLYN ALREADY SERVES UP A HEALTHY DIET TO ITS HUNGRY KIDS. I ATE A LOT OF CARROTS THAT IS WHERE I GET MY RED HAIR FROM. I THINK IT IS REALLY GOOD AND HEALTHY. THE GOVERNMENT WANTS ALL OF THE SCHOOLS RECEIVING MEALS TO FOLLOW STRICTER GUIDELINES TO FIGHT OBESITY AND IMPROVE A CHILD'S HEALTH. THE PROPOSALS WOULD REQUIRE SCHOOL CAFETERIAES TO CUT OVERALL CALORIES. SODIUM IN MEALS IN HALF. ELIMINATE TRANSFATS. REQUIRE MORE WHOLE GRAINS, FRUITS AND VEGETABLES AND SERVE ONLY NONFAT OR LOW FAT MILK. THE GUIDELINES WOULD AFFECT MORE THAN 32 MILLION STUDENTS NATIONWIDE AND THE GOVERNMENT SAYS THAT THEY ARE CRUCIAL. KIDS CAN CONSUME HALF OF THE DAILY CALORIES IN SCHOOL. THE PRINCIPAL OF PS 216 BELIEVES THAT THE CHANGES CANNOT COME SOON ENOUGH. AS PARENTS TRUST US. WITH THE EDUCATION OF THEIR CHILDREN THEY SHOULD TRUST THAT WE WANT NOT ONLY HEALTHY MINDS BUT HEALTHY BODIES.

[ Male Announcer ] BONJOURNO, NEW Subway Pesto Sandwiches. SEASONED WITH A ZESTY PESTO SAUCE AS BREATHTAKING AS THE ROLLING HILLS OF TOSCANA. AND FRESH TOASTED TILL THEY'RE MOLTO DELICIOSO. TRY THE PERFECTO Pesto Sandwiches TODAY. CRANK UP THE FLAVOR AT Subway. I SEE A LOT OF TEETH THAT LOOK GREAT, UNTIL I LOOK AT THE GUMLINE. THE PROBLEM IS, YOU COULD HAVE PLAQUE ALONG YOUR GUMLINE THAT CAN LEAD TO GINGIVITIS. IN FACT, ONE IN TWO ADULTS ACTUALLY HAS GINGIVITIS AND MIGHT NOT EVEN KNOW IT. THAT'S WHY I RECOMMEND NEW CREST PRO-HEALTH CLINICAL GUM PROTECTION TOOTHPASTE. IT HELPS ELIMINATE PLAQUE AT THE GUMLINE, HELPING PREVENT GINGIVITIS. AND IT'S BEEN CLINICALLY PROVEN TO HELP REVERSE IT, IN JUST FOUR WEEKS. IT ALSO PROTECTS THESE OTHER AREAS DENTISTS CHECK MOST. NEW CREST PRO-HEALTH CLINICAL TOOTHPASTE. FOR HEALTHIER GUMS. 4 PAUL: CLEAR HUGS DOUBLE, CLEAVER, BRADY, SOME OF YOUR FAVORITE TV MOTHERS. A LOT OF CONTROVERSY. CHINESE MOMS ARE THE BEST. SYLVIA LOPEZ EXPLAINS WHAT IS GOING ON. THIS WEEK. Reporter: PROOF THAT ALL CHINESE MOTHERS ARE NOT CREATED EQUAL. I KNOW WHAT I BELIEVE. I BELIEVE IN CHOICES. Reporter: A CONTROVERSIAL ARTICLE IN THE "WALL STREET JOURNAL" TITLED WHY CHINESE MOTHERS ARE SUPERIOR AS PARENTS EVERYWHERE TALKING. IN IT AMY PROMOTES AN ULTRA STRICT PARENTING STYLE PROHIBITING SLEEPOVERS COMPLETED, A TV, AND COMPUTER GAMES. SAYS HER CHILDREN WERE NEVER ALLOWED TO GET ANYTHING LESS THAN A. THEY WERE FORCED TO PLAY PIANO OR VIOLIN, SOMETIMES FOR HOURS WITHOUT A MEAL OR BATHROOM BREAKS. ALSO RAISED IN A STRICT CHINESE FAMILY BUT SAYS THAT THAT PARENTING STYLE IS NOT FOR HER. I CAN DEFINITELY, I CAN IDENTIFY WITH MANY OF THE PARTICIPANTS IN THE ARTICLE. REMARKABLY PROVOCATIVE. Reporter: A PSYCHOLOGY PROFESSOR AT SANTA CLARA UNIVERSITY WARNED AGAINST EXTREME PARENTING. THERE ARE RISKS INVOLVED IN ANY SORT OF PARENTING STYLE. IF YOU ARE TOO PERMISSIVE THERE IS A RISK THERE. IF YOU ARE TOO STRICT AND CONTROLLING THERE IS A RISK THERE. WHICH RISKS ARE YOU WILLING TO TAKE AND NOT TAKE AND WHAT IS CONSISTENT WITH YOU AS A PERSON? Reporter: HER CHILDREN ARE IN A MONTESSORI SCHOOL WHICH PROMOTES PERSONAL SOLACE. CULTIVATING CREATIVITY IN THE CHILD, NURTURING THE WHOLE BEING. IT IS WAY MORE THAN JUST ACADEMIC FOCUS. VERY IMPORTANTLY IT IS ABOUT CHOICES. Reporter: SYLVIA LOPEZ "CBS 2 NEWS. " PAT: AND "CBS 2 NEWS" AT 6:00 THIS IS MINUTES AWAY. PAUL: LET'S CHECK IN WITH LAURA DIAZ. Reporter: FAQ. AHEAD RIGHT HERE A DIRE PREDICTION FOR SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA. A NEW GOVERNMENT REPORT DETAILS JUST HOW BAD FLOODING WOULD BE AND HOW MUCH AUTHORITIES MIGHT STRUGGLE IF WE WERE HIT WITH A MAJOR STORM. PLUS DY ON A BICYCLE. HAPPENED IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA. WE WILL EXPLAIN THE REAL GROUNDS AND IT JUST IN BIEBER IS RUSHED TO THE HOSPITAL DURING A TAPING OF SCSI. IT WILL LET YOU KNOW WHY AND UPDATE HIS CONDITION. THOSE STORIES JUST AHEAD ON "CBS 2 NEWS" AT 6:00. BACK TO YOU. PAT: THEY DO. THINGS ARE MORE FAR OUT THE UNUSUAL. THE TONY AWARD WINNING MUSICAL HAIR IS NOW PLAYING AT THE PAN STAGES. THE FLOWER CHILDREN, PEACE, LOVE, AND GROOVY SONGS ARE ALL BACK. CHRISTINA MCLARTY HAS THE SIGHTS AND SOUNDS.

If, as expected, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors appoints City Administrator Ed Lee interim mayor today, the city's top two political offices will be held by Asian Americans, signaling the coming of age politically of a community that accounts for nearly 1 in 3 residents of the city.

Add to the equation that San Francisco's elected public defender, assessor-recorder and four of 11 members of the Board of Supervisors - President David Chiu among them - are of Asian descent.

"You wonder when you fought in the trenches for 40 years when this day would finally arrive," said San Francisco Chinatown power broker Rose Pak, who helped orchestrate Lee's ascension to interim mayor. "Maybe there's salvation after all."

While Asians have been an integral part of the city since the mid-1800s, the first Asian American didn't serve on the Board of Supervisors until 1973, when Mayor Joe Alioto appointed George Chinn to the board. Chinn lost election to retain his seat after nine months in office. In 1977, Gordon Lau became the first Asian American to be elected to a seat on the board, but only after having been appointed earlier that year by Mayor George Moscone.

Set to make history

It took another 17 years before an Asian American, Mabel Teng, won a supervisor's race without having been appointed first.

No Asian American has ever held the title mayor in San Francisco. Former Supervisor Tom Hsieh Sr. came the closest when he secured about 10 percent of the vote in the 1991 mayor's race. Today, two Asian American candidates have launched mayoral runs for the November election, state Sen. Leland Yee and Assessor-Recorder Phil Ting. Chiu also is seriously considering entering the race.

Lee has told supporters that he does not intend to run after he fills out the year remaining on Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom's mayoral term. And even though he is poised to enter the mayor's office as an appointee, Lee is set to make history in San Francisco.

Political maturation

Lee won't be the first Asian American to run a big Bay Area city. Jean Quan was elected mayor of Oakland in November, and Norm Mineta was elected mayor of San Jose in 1971.

But until now, the highest position at San Francisco City Hall "has eluded Asian Americans," said James Lai, an associate professor of political science and ethnic studies at Santa Clara University. "Whether he was appointed or elected, his becoming mayor shows the political maturation process of the community."

The roots of that maturation began in the 1950s when it became easier for Chinese Americans to become naturalized citizens. By the 1970s, nonprofit organizations centered in Chinatown began registering voters, and the numbers began to surge in the 1990s with the influx of immigrants from Hong Kong who left their homeland before the handover to communist China.

"That's when you started seeing a big difference," said David Lee, executive director of the Chinese American Voters Education Committee, which has actively registered voters.

Roughly 18 percent of the San Francisco electorate is Asian American, with about 80 percent of that group Chinese American, David Lee said. Twenty years ago, the number of Asian American voters was less than 10 percent, he said.

"For generations, before Asian Americans, particularly Chinese Americans, began voting in large numbers, their participation in politics was mainly limited to fundraising," David Lee said.

A new wave of power

The money, he said, largely went to fund white candidates. But in the 1990s, that began to change, beginning with the election of Teng.

"You go from a marginal player where you influence politics through the back door with money to where it is today, with grassroots people power and the Asian vote," David Lee said.

Chiu, the board president, and Supervisor Eric Mar, a former school board member, benefited from the new political landscape that they helped shape with their election to the Board of Supervisors in 2008.

Supervisor Jane Kim, a Korean American who also served on the school board and whose roots are in community organizing, won election to the board in November. The board's fourth Asian American, Carmen Chu, got her start on the board as a Newsom appointee but has since won two elections. All won with strong backing from Asian American voters, David Lee said.

Building political alliances

The notion of identity politics still runs strong in the Asian American community, where Asian American voters often will vote for Asian American candidates, Lai said.

But that is evolving as Asian American voters divide more along ideological lines and issues, building alliances with people from other communities who hold similar positions on growth, taxes, social policy and the like.

Chu, whose parents are immigrants, said she's proud to be part of the rising wave of Asian American political power, and said it wouldn't have happened without the activists who spent decades paving the way.

"It made it easier," she said, "for the next generation to get involved and get elected."

Dr. Frank Sousa, originally from the Azores, strives to educate people on the Portuguese influences and contributions in the United States. He is a professor of Portuguese at UMass Dartmouth, where he has been teaching since 1990, and has been influential in development of the Portuguese studies program.

Q: How and why did you decide to pursue a career in education?

A: Since immigrating to the United States from the Azores at the age of 9, I have always been interested in dedicating myself to education in one way or another, as I really loved school and learning. After completing a bachelor of science in psychology from Santa Clara University, I was awarded a scholarship for study at the University of Coimbra, Portugal's oldest university and one of the oldest in Europe. It was during my studies there that I began to consider the possibility of undertaking graduate studies in Portuguese literature. But the fact is that after my junior year in college, I was already committed to pursuing graduate studies.

Q: Who has been your greatest influence?

A: I was fortunate to have excellent teachers, beginning in elementary school. ... At Santa Clara University, I took two English courses with professor Christian Lievestro, whose devotion to the study of literature impressed me profoundly. In graduate school, I was also fortunate to have had great teachers, both visiting professors at the University of California Santa Barbara. ... But even more than all of these influences, I am grateful to my mother, Deolinda Fontes de Sousa, who had a fourth-grade education in the Azores and never learned English.

She was particularly dedicated to having her children learn to read and write. Indeed, through her efforts at home schooling, my nine brothers and sisters and I all knew the basics of reading and writing when we entered first grade, an uncommon occurrence in those days. Therefore, all 10 of us were raised with the firm conviction of the importance of education, which is probably in part why five of us now have graduate degrees.

Q: What do you find most rewarding about your job?

A: Nothing is more rewarding to me than having students become enthusiastic about and appreciative of a great work of literature, in what it has to teach and delight us. I am also grateful for the opportunities I have had over the years at UMD, as director of the publishing house Tagus Press, soon to be a part of the University Press of New England, to be the general editor of translations of great books from Portuguese literature and of books on the Portuguese-American experience.

Q: How did you get involved in the Portuguese community?

A: In California, I was raised in a Portuguese community connected to Our Lady of the Assumption Catholic Church in Turlock. I was involved in the traditional dance troupe, in the theater group, and played on the church's soccer team. And though I did leave the community to a great extent when I went away to college, I never severed relations. ... I would visit regularly, and continue to do so today, though I now live and work in New England. Curiously, it was in part this connection to a Portuguese community that led UMass Dartmouth to hire me. The leaders of UMD back in 1990 wanted to do much more to reach out to the largest ethnic group in the SouthCoast and very much wanted to hire a professor who could be the liaison between the university and the region.

n n

Sousa has received several awards from Portuguese organizations in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and California. He also proposed the development of the Portuguese-Language Newspaper Digitization Initiative, whose first completed project is the 84,000 pages of the "Diario de Notícias," the only Portuguese daily newspaper published in the United States. He believes that the establishment of the Center for Portuguese Studies and Culture, the creation of the graduate program in Portuguese and the Ferreira-Mendes Portuguese-American Archives are the most crucial projects he has been a part of.

Sharing the Portuguese contributions in America | View Clip01/13/2011Chronicle, The

Dr. Frank Sousa, originally from the Azores, strives to educate people on the Portuguese influences and contributions in the United States. He is a professor of Portuguese at UMass Dartmouth, where he has been teaching since 1990, and has been influential in development of the Portuguese studies program.

Q: How and why did you decide to pursue a career in education?

A: Since immigrating to the United States from the Azores at the age of 9, I have always been interested in dedicating myself to education in one way or another, as I really loved school and learning. After completing a bachelor of science in psychology from Santa Clara University, I was awarded a scholarship for study at the University of Coimbra, Portugal's oldest university and one of the oldest in Europe. It was during my studies there that I began to consider the possibility of undertaking graduate studies in Portuguese literature. But the fact is that after my junior year in college, I was already committed to pursuing graduate studies.

Q: Who has been your greatest influence?

A: I was fortunate to have excellent teachers, beginning in elementary school. ... At Santa Clara University, I took two English courses with professor Christian Lievestro, whose devotion to the study of literature impressed me profoundly. In graduate school, I was also fortunate to have had great teachers, both visiting professors at the University of California Santa Barbara. ... But even more than all of these influences, I am grateful to my mother, Deolinda Fontes de Sousa, who had a fourth-grade education in the Azores and never learned English.

She was particularly dedicated to having her children learn to read and write. Indeed, through her efforts at home schooling, my nine brothers and sisters and I all knew the basics of reading and writing when we entered first grade, an uncommon occurrence in those days. Therefore, all 10 of us were raised with the firm conviction of the importance of education, which is probably in part why five of us now have graduate degrees.

Q: What do you find most rewarding about your job?

A: Nothing is more rewarding to me than having students become enthusiastic about and appreciative of a great work of literature, in what it has to teach and delight us. I am also grateful for the opportunities I have had over the years at UMD, as director of the publishing house Tagus Press, soon to be a part of the University Press of New England, to be the general editor of translations of great books from Portuguese literature and of books on the Portuguese-American experience.

Q: How did you get involved in the Portuguese community?

A: In California, I was raised in a Portuguese community connected to Our Lady of the Assumption Catholic Church in Turlock. I was involved in the traditional dance troupe, in the theater group, and played on the church's soccer team. And though I did leave the community to a great extent when I went away to college, I never severed relations. ... I would visit regularly, and continue to do so today, though I now live and work in New England. Curiously, it was in part this connection to a Portuguese community that led UMass Dartmouth to hire me. The leaders of UMD back in 1990 wanted to do much more to reach out to the largest ethnic group in the SouthCoast and very much wanted to hire a professor who could be the liaison between the university and the region.

n n

Sousa has received several awards from Portuguese organizations in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and California. He also proposed the development of the Portuguese-Language Newspaper Digitization Initiative, whose first completed project is the 84,000 pages of the "Diario de Notícias," the only Portuguese daily newspaper published in the United States. He believes that the establishment of the Center for Portuguese Studies and Culture, the creation of the graduate program in Portuguese and the Ferreira-Mendes Portuguese-American Archives are the most crucial projects he has been a part of.

Students may be able to skip the LSAT if ABA changes rule | View Clip01/13/2011SmartBrief

Would-be law students might soon be able to begin pursuing a law degree without having to take the LSAT if the American Bar Association approves a proposed rule change. Law schools must require a standardized entry test to maintain their accreditation under the current rule. But such tests don't do much to guarantee the quality of the legal education offered by a given institution, notes Santa Clara University School of Law Dean Donald Polden, who is chairing the ABA committee considering the proposal. Polden says a "substantial portion" of the committee's membership favors doing away with the rule.

THAT'S WHY THESE STUDENTS ARE TRYING TO GET A JOB START HERE AT SANTA CLARA UNIVERSITY JOB FAIR. 701/13/2011ABC 7 Morning News at 4:30 AM - KGO-TV

Feed your fiesta. A LIVE LOOK AT THE INCLINE SECTION OF THE BAY BRIDGE. YOU SEE TRAFFIC ZIPPIN' ALONG LIKE USUAL, SLOWING AT THE CURVES, OF COURSE. IF THERE ARE ANY TRAFFIC PROBLEMS, FRANCES WILL LET YOU KNOW IN A FEW MINUTES. THE CRIPPLED CRUISE SHIP THAT KEPT PASSENGERS ADRIFT IN NOVEMBER WILL COME TO SAN FRANCISCO FOR MORE REPAIRS. THE CARNIVAL SPLENDOR'S ENGINE CAUGHT FIRE AND LEFT 3,000 STRANDED ON BOARD WITHOUT POWER FOR FOUR DAYS. PASSENGERS HAD NO ELECTRICITY, HOT WATER AND LIMITED FOOD. THE 951 FOOT SHIP WAS TOWED TO SAN DIEGO WHERE IT HAS BEEN UNDERGOING SOME REPAIRS. IT WILL BE BROUGHT TO SAN FRANCISCO'S PEER 70 WHICH IS THE ONLY WEST COAST DOCK ABLE TO HANDLE MORE SERIOUS REPAIRS FOR A SHIP AS LARGE AS THE SPLENDOR. THE LATEST JOB OUTLOOK APPEARS BRIGHTER FOR THIS YEAR COLLEGE GRADUATES. COMPANIES ARE HIRING AGAIN AND AS LISA AMIN GULEZIAN REPORTS, YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE AN ENGINEER TO GET A JOB. NATIONWIDE TENS OF THOUSANDS OF COLLEGE STUDENTS ARE ALREADY STARTING THEIR JOB SEARCH. I HOPE I CAN GET A JOB OUT OF COLLEGE. WE'LL SEE. THAT'S WHY THESE STUDENTS ARE TRYING TO GET A JOB START HERE AT SANTA CLARA UNIVERSITY JOB FAIR. 70 COMPANIES ARE PRESENT AND ALL HAVE JOBS TO OFFER. EMPLOYERS ARE MORE CONVINCED THAT THE ECONOMY IS ON A STEADY PATH UPWARD. ACCORDING TO THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF COLLEGES AND EMPLOYERS, THE 2011 JOB OUTLOOK FOR NEW GRADUATES IS GOOD. COMPANIES PLAN TO HIRE 13.5%MORE GRADUATES WITH A BACHELOR'S DEGREE THAN LAST YEAR. THE FUTURE IS VERY BRIGHT. WE ARE DOING A LOT OF HIRING RIGHT NOW. BIG NAMES ARE AT THIS JOB FAIR. APPLE, LOCKHEED MARTIN, AND SOME WANT THEIR FUTURE HIRES TO HAVE VERY SPECIFIC SKILLS. WHERE ARE YOU IN? MECHANICAL? THESE COMPANIES AREN'T JUST LOOKING FOR TECHIES. STUDENTS WITH DEGREES IN SOCIAL SCIENCES, LANGUAGES AND ART ALSO HAVE A CHANCE AT A HI-TECH JOB. YOU CAN TAKE A MARKETING BACKGROUND AND DO SOMETHING WITH IT. I'VE APPLIED TO MAYBE ABOUT 30 JOBS AT LEAST. MANY STUDENTS ARE STILL HAVING A HARD TIME LANDING A JOB. SOME TOLD ME STAYING IN SCHOOL LONGER MAY BE THE BEST WAY TO DEAL WITH THE SITUATION. IN SANTA CLARA, LISA AMIN GULEZIAN, ABC 7 NEWS. ABC 7 IS SPONSORING A HIRE EVENT IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THE JOB JOURNAL TWO WEEKS FROM NOW WEDNESDAY JANUARY 26 FROM NOON TO 4:00 AT THE SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO CENTER ON SOUTH AIRPORT BOULEVARD. THERE'S A LINK THAT WILL TELL YOU MORE AT abc7news. com. LOOK UNDER "SEE IT ON TV. " AND WE'LL REMIND YOU AGAIN, TOO. YES, WE WILL. IT'S 4:46. THE DELETED COMPUTER FILES OF THAT LAUNCHED AN INVESTIGATION IN THE EAST BAY. YOUR CHILDREN'S SCHOOL LUNCHES COULD BE GETTING A MAJOR OVERHAUL. THE MOVE BY THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TO FIGHT CHILDHOOD OBESITY. THE FIRST OF IT'S KIND IN THE NATION RIGHT HERE IN THE BAY AREA. THE MUSEUM CELEBRATING GAY HISTORY. AND THE SUSPENSE IS FINALLY OVER.

The Careerist: The Last Days of the LSAT? | View Clip01/13/2011American Lawyer - Online

I'm no fan of standardized testing, but I'm not cheering the possible elimination of the LSAT either. According to The National Law Journal, the ABA is considering making the LSAT voluntary rather than mandatory for admission to law schools, under its accreditation standards. "The committee reviewing the standards is leaning toward dropping the rule that law schools require J.D. applicants to take a 'valid and reliable admission test,'" chairman Donald Polden, dean of Santa Clara University School of Law, told the NLJ. One reason the ABA committee is thinking of dumping the LSAT requirement is to give schools more autonomy over their own admissions. "Is taking a standardized test the only way to determine if someone should be able to go to law school? Schools ought to be able to decide how they want to admit students," Loyola University Chicago School of Law dean David Yellen, a member of the review committee, told lthe NLJ.

Another factor, noted Yellen, is that the Law School Admission Council, which administers the LSAT, is "a wealthy institution. . . . So many people take the LSAT. Why is the ABA ensuring its future success?" Members of the the fraternity of law schools worrying about unjust enrichment in the legal education field? Really? I never thought I'd be defending the LSAT, but here I go. First of all, given the plight of jobless law school graduates saddled with hundred of thousands of dollars in debt, why are we encouraging the enactment of measures that could potentially lead to more jobless lawyers?

TOM PLANT, A PSYCHOLOGY PROFESSOR AT SANTA CLARA UNIVERSITY WARNS AGAINST EXTREME STYLES OF PARENTING.01/13/2011Up To The Minute - CBS News Network

ON THE "CBS MORNING NEWS" HERE'S A LOOK AT TODAY'S WEATHER. NOW THAT THE STRONG WINDS AND HEAVY SNOW ARE LEAVING THE NORTHEAST, CALMER CONDITIONS RETURN. THE NORTHWEST IS GETTING RAIN AND SNOW SHOWERS. EVERYWHERE ELSE IS QUIET, WITH COLD TEMPERATURES IN THE MIDWEST, AND MILD IN THE SOUTHWEST. HERE'S ANOTHER LOOK AT THIS MORNING'S TOP STORIES. FUNERAL SERVICES WILL BE HELD TODAY FOR CHRISTINA GREEN, THE YOUNGEST VICTIM IN THE TUCSON SHOOTING. LAST NIGHT, PRESIDENT OBAMA SPOKE AT A MEMORIAL SERVICE FOR THE VICTIMS. THE PRESIDENT ALSO SAID THAT WOUNDED CONGRESSWOMAN GABRIELLE GIFFORDS OPENED HER EYES. SHE'S EXPECTED TO SURVIVE BUT THE EXTENT OF HER RECOVERY REMAINS UNCLEAR. A NEW BOOK ABOUT PARENTING IS CAUSING A FIRESTORM. ITS TITLED "BATTLE HYMN OF THE TIGER MOTHER. " AUTHOR SAYS CHINESE MOTHERS RAISE THEIR CHILDREN BETTER THAN WESTERN MOMS. OUR SAN FRANCISCO STATION REPORTS. SPELLING OF THE WEEK. LET'S PRACTICE. Reporter: SHE IS PROOF THAT ALL CHINESE MOTHERS ARE NOT CREATED EQUAL. I KNOW WHAT I BELIEVE. AND I BELIEVE IN CHOICES. Reporter: BUT A CONTROVERSIAL ARTICLE IN "THE WALL STREET JOURNAL" TITLED "WHY CHINESE MOTHERS ARE SUPERIOR" HAS PARENTS EVERYWHERE TALKING. IN IT, AUTHOR AMY CHUA PROMOTES AN ULTRASTRICT PARENTING STYLE, PROHIBITING SLEEPOVERS, PLAY DATES, TV AND COMPUTER GAMES. SHE SAYS HER CHILDREN WERE NEVER ALLOWED TO GET ANYTHING LESS THAN AN "A. " AND THEY WERE FORCED TO PLAY PIANO OR VIOLIN, SOMETIMES FOR HOURS WITHOUT MEAL OR BATHROOM BREAKS. THE BOOK'S REMARKABLY PROVOCATIVE, THAT'S FOR SURE. Reporter: DR. TOM PLANT, A PSYCHOLOGY PROFESSOR AT SANTA CLARA UNIVERSITY WARNS AGAINST EXTREME STYLES OF PARENTING. THERE ARE RISKS INVOLVED IN ANY SORT OF PARENTING STYLE. IF YOU'RE TOO PERMISSIVE, THERE'S RISKS THERE. IF YOU'RE TOO STRICT AND CONTROLLING, THERE'S RISKS THERE. WHICH RISKS ARE YOU WILLING TO TAKE AND NOT TAKE? AND WHAT'S CONSISTENT WITH YOU AS A PERSON? Reporter: AS FOR CHUNG, HER KIDS JADEN AND CLARICE ARE IN A MONTESSORI SCHOOL, WHICH PROMOTES PERSONAL CHOICE. CULTIVATING CREATIVITY IN A CHILD WHILE NURTURING THEIR WHOLE BEING. SO IT'S WAY MORE THAN JUST ACADEMIC FOCUS. VERY IMPORTANTLY, IT'S ABOUT GIVING CHOICES. Reporter: IN SAN JOSE, CBS 5. THIS MORNING ON "THE EARLY SHOW, " REALITY STAR CAMILLE GRAMMER. I'M BETTY NGUYEN. THIS IS THE "CBS MORNING NEWS. " [ BEEP ] [ BEEP ] [ BEEP ] [ Male Announcer ] FIND AN ITALIAN MASTERPIECE IN YOUR GROCER'S FREEZER. SHRIMP AND LOBSTER RAVIOLI WITH GARLIC BUTTER SAUCE, FROM BUITONI. SIMPLE INGREDIENTS, ARTFULLY PREPARED. BUITONI. CREATE AN ITALIAN MASTERPIECE. DISCOVER MORE BUITONI MASTERPIECES IN THE FREEZER SECTION. WHILE SOME FIBER ADS USE SUPER MODELS, METAMUCIL USES SUPER HARD WORKING PSYLLIUM FIBER, WHICH GELS TO REMOVE UNSEXY WASTE AND REDUCE CHOLESTEROL. TAKING PSYLLIUM FIBER WON'T MAKE YOU A MODEL BUT YOU SHOULD FEEL A LITTLE MORE SUPER. METAMUCIL. DOWN WITH CHOLESTEROL. Man on TV: HE COVERED OVER 5,000 MILES, AVERAGING ABOUT 100 MILES PER DAY. MANSON SAYS HE WANTS TO THANK ALL WHO DONATED TO HIS CAUSE AND WANTS TO REMIND US THAT EVEN THOUGH HIS JOURNEY IS, MUST CONTINUE. TOM AND HARRIET, Announcer: EVERY YEAR 1 MILLION FAMILIES FACE LOSING THEIR HOMES TO FORECLOSURE. BECAUSE THEY DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO, THEY DO NOTHING. IF YOU'RE IN DANGER OF LOSING YOUR HOME, CALL US, BECAUSE NOTHING IS WORSE THAN DOING NOTHING.

KIET DOH SPOKE WITH A BAY AREA MOM, WHO SAYS THERE'S A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A DEAR MOM, AND A MOMMIE DEAREST. SEELING CHEUNG IS PROOF THAT ALL CHINESE MOTHERS ARE NOT CREATED EQUAL. 46:14 Seeling Cheung, Mother: I know what I believe, and I believe in choices. (laughs BUT A CONTROVERSIAL ARTICLE IN THE WALL STREET JOURNAL TITLED, "WHY CHINESE MOTHERS ARE SUPERIOR" HAS PARENTS EVERYWHERE TALKING. IN IT, AUTHOR AMY CHUA PROMOTES AN ULTRA STRICT PARENTINGSTYLE, PROHIBITING SLEEPOVERS, PLAYDATES, TV AND COMPUTER GAMES. CHUA SAYS HER CHILDREN WERE NEVER ALLOWED TO GET ANYTHING LESSTHAN AN 'A'. AND THEY WERE FORCED TO PLAY PIANO OR VIOLIN, SOMETIMES FORHOURS WITHOUT MEAL OR BATHROOM BREAKS. CHEUNG WAS ALSO RAISED IN A STRICT CHINESE FAMILY, BUT SAYS THAT PARENTING STYLE IS NOT FOR HER. 36:04 #724 @ 6:06 DR. TOM PLANTE, A PSYCHOLOGY PROFESSOR AT SANTA CLARA UNIVERSITY, WARNED AGAINST EXTREME PARENTING. #725 @ 20:48 AS FOR CHEUNG, HER KIDS JAYDEN AND CLARISSE ARE IN A MONTESSORI SCHOOL, WHICH PROMOTES PERSONAL CHOICE. 37:38 37:58 COMING UP IN OUR NEXT HALF HOUR, THE LATEST ON THE MAYORS PLAN TO FIX NEXT HALF HOUR, THE LATEST ON THE MAYORS PLAN TO FIX THE CITY'S BUDGET IN A LIVE REPORT PLUS A LOCAL HIGH SCHOOL IS PREPARING FOR ANTI GAY PROTESTS THIS WEEKEND, OVER A SCHOOL PLAY. ALSO, SAN DIEGO'S COUNTY'S FIRST SPRINKLES CUPCAKES OPENS TODAY, COMING UP, ATM'S ARE FOUND TO BE ABSOLUTELY FILTHY, THE LAB RESULTS, AT 5-45, BUT FIRST, SQUEEKY CLEAN KIMBERLY, WITH A LOOK AT OUR WEATHER, MAYOR JERRY SANDERS SAYS HE HEARS SAN DIEGANS DISAPPROVAL OF TAX INCREASES.

KEET DOE HAS THE STORY "WHY CHINESE MOTHERS ARE SUPERIOR. " IT'S THE TITLE OF A RECENTLY-PUBLISHED ESSAY THAT'S DEFINITELY TOUCHED A NERVE AMONG SOME HERE IN THE BAY AREA. THE AUTHOR SAYS YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE CHINESE TO FALL UNDER THAT HEADING. KIET DO ON THE DEFINITION, THAT'S GOT THE BLOGOSPHERE BUZZING. SEELING CHEUNG IS PROOF THAT ALL CHINESE MOTHERS ARE NOT CREATED EQUAL. 46:14 Seeling Cheung, Mother: I know what I believe, and I believe in choices. (laughs BUT A CONTROVERSIAL ARTICLE IN THE WALL STREET JOURNAL TITLED, "WHY CHINESE MOTHERS ARE SUPERIOR" HAS PARENTS EVERYWHERE TALKING. IN IT, AUTHOR AMY CHUA PROMOTES AN ULTRA STRICT PARENTING STYLE, PROHIBITING SLEEPOVERS, PLAYDATES, TV AND COMPUTER GAMES. CHUA SAYS HER CHILDREN WERE NEVER ALLOWED TO GET ANYTHING LESS THAN AN 'A' . AND THEY WERE FORCED TO PLAY PIANO OR VIOLIN, SOMETIMES FOR HOURS WITHOUT MEAL OR BATHROOM BREAKS. CHEUNG WAS ALSO RAISED IN A STRICT CHINESE FAMILY, BUT SAYS THAT PARENTING STYLE IS NOT FOR HER. 36:04 #724 @ 6:06 DR. TOM PLANTE, A PSYCHOLOGY PROFESSOR AT SANTA CLARA UNIVERSITY, WARNED AGAINST EXTREME PARENTING. #725 @ 20:48 AS FOR CHEUNG, HER KIDS JAYDEN AND CLARISSE ARE IN A MONTESSORI SCHOOL, WHICH PROMOTES PERSONAL CHOICE. 37:38 37:58 THAT WAS KEET DOE REPORTING. WE'LL BE RIGHT BACK.

Hold the French fries. For the first time In fifteen years The government is proposing new healthier guidelines for school lunches. Manuel Gallegus reports from Brooklyn. Public school 216 In Brooklyn already serves up a healthy diet to its hungry kids. -Sot- kids I eat a lot of carrots, that is where I get my Red hair from. Finella tutelman/5th grader I think it is really good and it is healthy. Now the government wants all schools receiving subsidized meals to follow stricter guidelines. To fight obesity and improve a child's health. -Graphic-the proposals would require school cafeterias to cut overall calories. - Cut sodium In meals In half. -Eliminate most trans fats. - Require more whole grains, fruits and vegetables. Vo and serve only non fat or low fat milk . -Stand-up Manuel Gallegus, CBS News Brooklyn the new guidelines would affect more than 32-million students. The government says they're crucial since children get about half their daily calories at school. The principal of ps 216 thinks the changes can'T come soon enough. -Sot- Celia kaplinsky just as parents trust us with education, they should trust that we want not only healthy minds, but healthy bodies. We ar not overreaching we are educating. So get ready kids No more fries . -Sot-would You like to have ff every day? Yes, because I like ff so much. What if You can have them only once a week? My heart will melt. But principal kaplinsky says In her experience, children get used to whatever You give them And healthier food will become a way of Life. Manuel Gallegus, CBS News Brooklyn. Osed guidelines take effect. "Why Chinese Mothers are superior. " It's the title of a recently-published essay that's definitely touched a nerve among many Americans. And what is seen as extreme Even borderline abusive parenting style has the blogosphere buzzing. More on the controversy In today's family matters report. Seeling cheung is proof that all Chinese Mothers are not created equal. 46:14 But a controversial article In the Wall Street Journal titled, "why Chinese Mothers are superior" has parents everywhere talking. In it, author Amy chua promotes an ultra strict parenting style, prohibiting sleepovers, playdates, Tv and computer games. Chua says her children were never allowed to get anything less than an 'a' In school. And they were forced to play piano or violin, sometimes for hours without meal or bathroom breaks. Cheung was also raised In a strict Chinese family, but says that parenting style is not for her. 36:04 #724 @ 6:06 Dr. Tom plante, a psychology professor at Santa Clara University, warned against extreme parenting. #725 @ 20:48 Story what story? As for cheung, her kids Jayden and clarisse are In a Montessori school, which promotes personal choice. 37:38 37:58 For a link to the article published In the Wal Street Journal Go to our website at kutv2.Com from the 2 news weather Center A fast-moving storm will move across northern and Central Utah tonight. Light Snow showers are expected With about 1-2 inches of accumulation on the Valley floor and 6 inches or so In the mountains. A few pockets of freezing rain may be possible this evening But any freezing rain will quickly change over to Snow by mid-evening. A few Snow showers may linger for tomorrow morning along the Wasatch Front.

30 FUTURE OF TVWHAT'S THE FUTURE OF BROADCAST TV? MORE OF YOUR FAVORITE TV SHOWS AS ALWAYS. BREAKING LOCAL NEWS EMERGENCY ALERTSIN THE PALM OF YOUR HAND. HIGH QUALITY HD 3D TV MORE CHOICES THAN EVER. THE FUTURE OF BROADCAST TV? IT'S HD 3DMOBILE TV. TECHNOLOGY, NOT REGULATION FROM WASHINGTON DC CHECK OUT WHAT'S NEXT. IN YOUR HEALTH NEWS, ORANGE JUICE MAY HELP YOUR CHOLESTEROL. RESEARCHERS STUDIED 26 MIDDLE-AGED WOMEN WHO WERE EITHER OVERWEIGHT OR OBESE. EACH EXERCISED AN HOUR THREE TIMES A WEEK. HALF OF THOSE WOMEN ALSO DRANK TWO CUPS OF ORANGE JUICE A DAY. AFTER THREE MONTHS, ALL OF THE WOMEN IN THE STUDY LOST WEIGHT, BUT THE WOMEN WHO DRANK ORANGE JUICE LOWERED THEIR LDL - OR BAD CHOLESTEROL LEVELS, AND RAISED THEIR HDL OR GOOD LEVELS. THE NUMBER OF AMERICANS WITH ASTHMA IS GOING UP, AFTER HOLDING STEADY FOR THE LAST FOUR YEARS. NOWNEARLY ONE IN 12 PEOPLE HAS THE RESPIRATORY DISEASE. RESEARCHERS SAY BETTER DIAGNOSES COULD BE PART OF THE REASON FOR THE INCREASE. HEALTH OFFICIALS ESTIMATE MORE THAN 3-THOUSAND AMERICANS DIE FROM ASTHMA EACH YEAR. "WHY CHINESE MOTHERS ARE SUPERIOR. "IT'S THE TITLE OF A RECENTLY-PUBLISHED ESSAY IN THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, THAT'S SPARKING DEBATE NATIONWIDE. KIET DO TAKES A LOOK AT THE CONTROVERSY. SEELING CHEUNG IS PROOF THAT ALL CHINESE MOTHERS ARE NOT CREATED EQUAL. 46:14 (SEELING CHEUNG, MOTHER: I KNOW WHAT I BELIEVE, AND I BELIEVE IN CHOICES. 1) BUT A CONTROVERSIAL ARTICLE IN THE WALL STREET JOURNAL TITLED, "WHY CHINESE MOTHERS ARE SUPERIOR" HAS PARENTS EVERYWHERE TALKING. (PIC 2) IN IT, AUTHOR AMY CHUA PROMOTES AN ULTRA STRICT PARENTINGSTYLE, PROHIBITING SLEEPOVERS, PLAYDATES, TV AND COMPUTER GAMES. (PIC 3) CHUA SAYS HER CHILDREN WERE NEVER ALLOWED TO GET ANYTHING LESS THAN AN 'A'PIC 4) AND THEY WERE FORCED TO PLAY PIANO OR VIOLIN, SOMETIMES FORHOURS WITHOUT MEAL OR BATHROOM BREAKS. CHEUNG WAS ALSO RAISED IN A STRICT CHINESE FAMILY, BUT SAYS THAT PARENTING STYLE IS NOT FOR HER. 36:04 (CHEUNG: I WAS RAISED BY A CHINESE MOTHER, SO I DEFINITELY CAN IDENTIFY WITH SOME OF THE PRACTICES CALLED OUT IN THEARTICLE. @ 6:06 (TOM PLANTE, PSYCHOLOGIST: IT'S REMARKABLE PROVOCATIVE, THAT'S FOR SURE. ) DR. TOM PLANTE, A PSYCHOLOGY PROFESSOR AT SANTA CLARA UNIVERSITY, WARNED AGAINST EXTREME PARENTING. #725 @ 20:48 (PLANTE: THERE ARE RISKS INVOLVED IN ANY PARENTING STYLE. IF YOU'RE TOO PERMISSIVE, THERE'S RISKS THERE. AND IF YOU'RE TOO STRICT, THERE ARE RISKS THERE. WHICH RISKS ARE YOU WILLING TO TAKE, AND WHAT'S CONSISTENT WITH YOU AS A PERSON. )AS FOR CHEUNG, HER KIDS JAYDEN AND CLARISSE ARE IN A MONTESSORI SCHOOL, WHICH PROMOTES PERSONAL CHOICE. 37:38 (CHEUNG: CULTIVATING CREATIVITY IN THE CHILD, ABOUT NURTURING THE WHOLE BEING. SO IT'S WAY MORE THAN ACADEMIC FOCUS. ) 37:58 (VERY IMPORTANTLY, IT'S ABOUT GIVING CHOICES. )IN SAN JOSE, KIET DO, CBS5. YOU CAN READ THE ESSAY ON LINE, JUST GO TO WNEM DOT COM SLASH HOTLINKS. THANKS FOR WATCHING WNEM-TV5 NEWS AT 5:30. TONIGHT'S TOP STORY AT 6, A NEW REPORT ACCUSING THE STATE OF LYING TO PARENTS ABOUT HOW THEIR KIDS ARE REALLY DOING IN SCHOOL. WHAT LOCAL SCHOOL LEADERS ARE SAYING TONIGHT, WHEN THE NEWS AT SIX STARTS IN TWO MINUTES. DENTURES ARE SOFTER THAN TEETH AND A LOT OF PEOPLE WHEN THEY GET A DENTURE THEY THINK THE BEST WAY TO CLEAN IT IS BY BRUSHING IT WITH TOOTHPASTE. TOOTHPASTE CONTAINS ABRASIVES THAT SCRATCH DENTURES LEAVING MICROSCOPIC CREVICES WHERE BACTERIA CAN GROW AND BACTERIA CAN CAUSE BAD BREATH.

IN YOUR HEALTH NEWS, ORANGE JUICE MAY HELP YOUR CHOLESTEROL. RESEARCHERS STUDIED 26 MIDDLE-AGED WOMEN WHO WERE EITHER OVERWEIGHT OR OBESE. EACH EXERCISED AN HOUR THREE TIMES A WEEK. HALF OF THOSE WOMEN ALSO DRANK TWO CUPS OF ORANGE JUICE A DAY. AFTER THREE MONTHS, ALL OF THE WOMEN IN THE STUDY LOST WEIGHT, BUT THE WOMEN WHO DRANK ORANGE JUICE LOWERED THEIR LDL - OR BAD CHOLESTEROL LEVELS, AND RAISED THEIR HDL OR GOOD LEVELS. THE NUMBER OF AMERICANS WITH ASTHMA IS GOING UP, AFTER HOLDING STEADY FOR THE LAST FOUR YEARS. NOWNEARLY ONE IN 12 PEOPLE HAS THE RESPIRATORY DISEASE. RESEARCHERS SAY BETTER DIAGNOSES COULD BE PART OF THE REASON FOR THE INCREASE. HEALTH OFFICIALS ESTIMATE MORE THAN 3-THOUSAND AMERICANS DIE FROM ASTHMA EACH YEAR. "WHY CHINESE MOTHERS ARE SUPERIOR. "IT'S THE TITLE OF A RECENTLY-PUBLISHED ESSAY IN THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, THAT'S SPARKING DEBATE NATIONWIDE. KIET DO TAKES A LOOK AT THE CONTROVERSY. SEELING CHEUNG IS PROOF THAT ALL CHINESE MOTHERS ARE NOT CREATED EQUAL. 46:14 (SEELING CHEUNG, MOTHER: I KNOW WHAT I BELIEVE, AND I BELIEVE IN CHOICES. 1) BUT A CONTROVERSIAL ARTICLE IN THE WALL STREET JOURNAL TITLED, "WHY CHINESE MOTHERS ARE SUPERIOR" HAS PARENTS EVERYWHERE TALKING. (PIC 2) IN IT, AUTHOR AMY CHUA PROMOTES AN ULTRA STRICT PARENTINGSTYLE, PROHIBITING SLEEPOVERS, PLAYDATES, TV AND COMPUTER GAMES. (PIC 3) CHUA SAYS HER CHILDREN WERE NEVER ALLOWED TO GET ANYTHING LESS THAN AN 'A'PIC 4) AND THEY WERE FORCED TO PLAY PIANO OR VIOLIN, SOMETIMES FORHOURS WITHOUT MEAL OR BATHROOM BREAKS. CHEUNG WAS ALSO RAISED IN A STRICT CHINESE FAMILY, BUT SAYS THAT PARENTING STYLE IS NOT FOR HER. 36:04 (CHEUNG: I WAS RAISED BY A CHINESE MOTHER, SO I DEFINITELY CAN IDENTIFY WITH SOME OF THE PRACTICES CALLED OUT IN THEARTICLE. @ 6:06 (TOM PLANTE, PSYCHOLOGIST: IT'S REMARKABLE PROVOCATIVE, THAT'S FOR SURE. ) DR. TOM PLANTE, A PSYCHOLOGY PROFESSOR AT SANTA CLARA UNIVERSITY, WARNED AGAINST EXTREME PARENTING. #725 @ 20:48 (PLANTE: THERE ARE RISKS INVOLVED IN ANY PARENTING STYLE. IF YOU'RE TOO PERMISSIVE, THERE'S RISKS THERE. AND IF YOU'RE TOO STRICT, THERE ARE RISKS THERE. WHICH RISKS ARE YOU WILLING TO TAKE, AND WHAT'S CONSISTENT WITH YOU AS A PERSON. )AS FOR CHEUNG, HER KIDS JAYDEN AND CLARISSE ARE IN A MONTESSORI SCHOOL, WHICH PROMOTES PERSONAL CHOICE. 37:38 (CHEUNG: CULTIVATING CREATIVITY IN THE CHILD, ABOUT NURTURING THE WHOLE BEING. SO IT'S WAY MORE THAN ACADEMIC FOCUS. ) 37:58 (VERY IMPORTANTLY, IT'S ABOUT GIVING CHOICES. )IN SAN JOSE, KIET DO, CBS5. YOU CAN READ THE ESSAY ON LINE, JUST GO TO WNEM DOT COM SLASH HOTLINKS. THANKS FOR WATCHING WNEM-TV5 NEWS AT 5:30. TONIGHT'S TOP STORY AT 6, A NEW REPORT ACCUSING THE STATE OF LYING TO PARENTS ABOUT HOW THEIR KIDS ARE REALLY DOING IN SCHOOL. WHAT LOCAL SCHOOL LEADERS ARE SAYING TONIGHT, WHEN THE NEWS AT SIX STARTS IN TWO MINUTES. DENTURES ARE SOFTER THAN TEETH AND A LOT OF PEOPLE WHEN THEY GET A DENTURE THEY THINK THE BEST WAY TO CLEAN IT IS BY BRUSHING IT WITH TOOTHPASTE. TOOTHPASTE CONTAINS ABRASIVES THAT SCRATCH DENTURES LEAVING MICROSCOPIC CREVICES WHERE BACTERIA CAN GROW AND BACTERIA CAN CAUSE BAD BREATH. ONLY POLIDENT IS PROVEN TO CLEAN WITHOUT SCRATCHING AND KILLS 99.9%OF ODOR CAUSING BACTERIA. I RECOMMEND USING POLIDENT AND SOAK EVERY DAY. IT'S THE RIGHT WAY TO GO. NOW WITH AN IMPROVED MICROCLEAN FORMULA. MICHIGAN KIDS FALLING BEHIND THEIR PEERS IN OTHER STATES.

This question constitutes the underlying tension between classical economics and behavioral finance. The classical model assumes that what people want from their investments is the highest return relative to risk. Behavioral economists say people act stupidly in how they pursue that goal.

Meir Statman, a finance professor at the Leavey School of Business at Santa Clara University, is calling for a diplomatic truce. In his new book, "What Investors Really Want," Statman argues we don't necessarily have to be rational to be good investors. We just have to be smart.

The financial crisis spotlighted extremes in investor irrationality, and since then we've lost sight of "the normal people in the middle — and of course normal people is who we pretty much all are," Statman says. "We all do stupid things. What we need to do is increase the ratio of smart to stupid behavior and know we are not going to be computers. Investors need to have the introspection to figure out what they really want."

So how should "normal people" approach investing? Start by acknowledging what you actually want your finances to do: What is the money for? What goals are you trying to reach, both practically and philosophically? Statman taps a mountain of statistical data and dozens of compelling anecdotes to identify what investors want: to support our families, educate our kids, stay true to our values. (He includes a moving 12th century letter written by a father to his son that demonstrates the timelessness of these desires.) We want fairness, good advice and protection from fraud. We want the utilitarian benefit of growing our money without inordinate risk.

But at the same time, we want our money to say something to others about our values, tastes and status. One investor may choose a socially responsible mutual fund to signal to himself his conscientiousness; another may discuss his hedge fund investments to demonstrate his status (regardless of the fact that most hedge funds, after fees, don't surpass the returns of index funds).

And that's OK, Statman argues — just be honest about your motivation. "For me, index funds work — but for me, a Honda Accord also works, in the sense that I have a good car at a good price, and index funds have good returns relative to risk," he says. "But I would not fault someone who buys an Acura because he wants more prestige, or a sports car because he likes driving it."

So even if the historical data favors index funds or buy-and-hold strategies, trade stocks if you get pleasure from it, Statman says. Just be smart: If you're going to play the market, set aside a small amount of money for that purpose rather than the entire retirement account.

In addition, Statman explains the common cognitive errors that investors make, material that's been well-covered in other behavioral finance books. Mistakes include confirmation errors, when we search for evidence that confirms our intuition, beliefs and hypotheses, but overlook evidence that refutes them; hindsight errors, "the belief that whatever happened was bound to happen, as if uncertainty and chance were banished from the world"; and framing errors, when we make mistakes because of the way we choose to describe a scenario or decision.

For instance, people who play the market may see themselves as playing tennis against a wall when they should see it as potentially playing against Venus Williams. After all, Goldman Sachs or Warren Buffett may be on the other side of your trade.

Investors can overcome these unrealistic notions with a little honesty. "If you tell yourself you are a genius at picking stocks, get someone to audit your portfolio — and tell you whether you're just counting winners and failing to count losers," Statman advises.

I found the book reassuring; I rarely hear economists or planners admit that financial planning must be done in a giant informational vacuum. For instance, he writes about "the Number" — the amount of money we think we need to retire. Surveys have found two-thirds of people think about the Number at least sometimes, and almost half say that calculating the number is difficult and we don't know where to start.

The real stunner in the survey is not that almost half of us think that calculating the Number is difficult, but that more than half think that it's easy. "Calculating the Number is almost hopelessly difficult... not only because it requires so much information, but also because much of that information is uncertain," including the future return on savings and the rate of inflation, Statman says.

I have the same foggy feeling trying to ballpark college savings, especially when the cost of tuition has outpaced everything else in the U.S. economy except for health care. "We come to think about money in a mechanical fashion — what is the number?" Statman says. "And then we realize that life has those zigs and zags, and the biggest risk we face is not that our kid won't be bright enough to go to college or we can't afford it, but God forbid there is a sudden illness or accident — those things that are part of the human condition."

Statman says reflecting on personal experience helps him keep perspective on unpleasant financial surprises. "My parents are survivors of the Holocaust. When you think about black swans, you tell me, what do I do as a teenager when the Nazis are invading Poland? Tell me which market I can hedge?" he says. "The market we can hedge is the market of resilience. So I made a promise to myself always to remember that. If my parents made it through Siberia and Uzbekistan, and had me in refugee camp in Germany, and still managed to raise a family, it really is ungrateful to whine over the loss of a chunk of my portfolio."

Laura is author of the book "Money & Happiness" and blog of the same name. Read more about her here.

WHICH RISKS ARE YOU WILLING TO TAKE AND NOT TAKE AND WHAT'S CONSISTENT WITH YOU AS A PERSON? SANTA CLARA UNIVERSITY PSYCHOLOGY PROFESSOR TOM PLANT SAYS EXTREME PARENTING IS TROUBLESOME ON EITHER END OF THE SPECTRUM.01/13/2011CBS 5 Eyewitness News at 5 AM - KPIX-TV

A NEWSPAPER ARTICLE THAT SUGGESTS CHINESE MOTHERS ARE SUPERIOR HAS TOUCHED A BIG NERVE AMONG MOMS EVERYWHERE. THAT ESSAY BY THE AUTHOR PROMOTES AN ULTRASTRICT PARENTING STYLE PROHIBITING SLEEPOVERS, PLAY DATES, TELEVISION AND COMPUTER GAMES. SOME EXPERTS SAY THE MIDDLE GROUND IS THE BEST APPROACH. THERE ARE RISKS INVOLVED AND ANY SORT OF PARENTING STYLE, IF YOU'RE TOO PERMISSIVE, THERE'S RISK THERE, IF YOU'RE TOO STRICT AND CONTROLLING, THERE'S RISKS THERE. WHICH RISKS ARE YOU WILLING TO TAKE AND NOT TAKE AND WHAT'S CONSISTENT WITH YOU AS A PERSON? SANTA CLARA UNIVERSITY PSYCHOLOGY PROFESSOR TOM PLANT SAYS EXTREME PARENTING IS TROUBLESOME ON EITHER END OF THE SPECTRUM. IT'S A FASCINATING ARTICLE. IT IS.

WHILE CHUA SAYS HER METHOD IS WORKING FOR HER GIRLS, MANY CHILDHOOD EXPERTS ARE WARNING AGAINST EXTREME PARENTING: TOM PLANTE/ SANTA CLARA UNIVERSITY: THERE ARE RISKS INVOLVED IN ANY PARENTINGSTYLE.01/13/2011KLAS-TV

LADY GAGA, EMINEM, AND KATY PERRY HAVE ALL AGREED TO PERFORM AT THE SHOW. THE RECORDING ACADEMY'S BIG NIGHT IS SET FOR FEBRUARY 13-TH IN LOS ANGELES. EMINEM LEADS THE NOMINATIONS WITH 10, HE'S WON 11 GRAMMYS THROUGHOUT HIS CAREER. LADY GAGA IS UP FOR SIX AWARDS. YOU CAN SEE THE SHOW RIGHT HERE ON CHANNEL 8. > TWO OF THE BIGGEST NAMES IN SURVIVOR HISTORY ARE COMING BACK, AGAIN! "BOSTON" ROB MARIANO AND RUSSELL HANTZ WILL BE BACK FOR THE 22-ND SEASON OF THE SHOW. THIS WILL BE ROB'S FOURTH TIME COMPETING AND RUSSELL'S THIRD. NEITHER OF THEM HAVE WON THE MILLION DOLLAR PRIZE, BUT BOTH HAVE CAUSED CONTROVERSY FOR BEING FIERCE COMPETITORS, AND TRIBE MANIPULATORS. THE NEW SEASON OF SURVIVOR STARTS FEBRUARY 16-TH. > FEDERAL HEALTH REGULATORS ARE CHANGING A KEY INGREDIENT FOUND IN PRESCRIPTION PAINKILLERS. THE FDA IS LIMITING THE AMOUNT OF ACETAMINOPHEN FOUND IN PAINKILLERS LIKE VICODIN AND PERCOCET. ACETAMINOPHEN HAS BEEN LINKED TO THOUSANDS OF CASES OF LIVER DAMAGE EACH YEAR. THE PAIN RELIEVER IS FOUND NON-PRESCRIPTION MEDICATIONS LIKE TYLENOL, NYQUIL AND OTHER COLD MEDICATIONS. BUT THERE ARE MUCH HIGHER DOSES OF IT IN PRESCRIPTION PAIN MEDICATION. > THE COUNTRY COULD BE SPENDING A LOT MORE IN THE FUTURE TO TREAT CANCER PATIENTS. THE STUDY BY THE NATIONAL CANCER INSTITUTE SAYS THE COST OF CARING COULD SKYROCKET BY 20-20. ONE ESTIMATE SAYS COSTS COULD GO UP 66 PERCENT IN THAT TIME. ITS MOSTLY BECAUSE OF THE COUNTRY'S AGING POPULATION. OLDER PEOPLE ARE AT GREATER RISK FOR DEVELOPING CANCER. RIGHT NOW THE COUNTRY SPENDS ABOUT 124 BILLION DOLLARS ON CANCER CARE. > SCHOOL WILL NOW HAVE TO HOLD THE FRIES, AND THE SODA POP. FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 15 YEARS THE GOVERNMENT IS PROPOSING NEW HEALTHIER GUIDELINES FOR SCHOOL LUNCHES. MANUEL GALLEGUS REPORTS FROM BROOKLYN. > IT COULD BE A FEW YEARS BEFORE THE PROPOSED GUIDELINES ACTUALLY TAKE EFFECT IN SCHOOLS AROUND THE COUNTRY. > A MOM IS CAUSING A NATIONWIDE CONTROVERSY BECAUSE OF A BOOK AND ESSAY ABOUT PARENTING. AMY CHUA'S ESSAY IN THE WALL STREET JOURNAL IS CALLED "WHY CHINESE MOTHERS ARE SUPERIOR. " IN THE ARTICLE AND HER BOOK, SHE EXPLAINS WHY A STRICT CHINESE PHILOSOPHY OF RAISING CHILDREN IS BEST. SOME OF THE RULES HER CHILDREN LIVE BY INCLUDE, NO SLEEPOVERS, NO PLAYDATES, NO TV OR COMPUTER GAMES, NO GRADE BELOW AN 'A', AND THEY'RE REQUIRED TO PLAY EITHER THE PIANO OR VIOLIN. WHILE CHUA SAYS HER METHOD IS WORKING FOR HER GIRLS, MANY CHILDHOOD EXPERTS ARE WARNING AGAINST EXTREME PARENTING: TOM PLANTE/ SANTA CLARA UNIVERSITY: THERE ARE RISKS INVOLVED IN ANY PARENTINGSTYLE. IF YOU'RE TOO PERMISSIVE, THERE'S RISKS THERE. AND IF YOU'RE TOO STRICT, THERE ARE RISKS THERE. WHICH RISKS ARE YOU WILLING TO TAKE, AND WHAT'S CONSISTENT WITH YOU AS A PERSON. ) THE AUTHOR SAYS SHE DIDN'T INTEND HER BOOK OR ARTICLE TO BE A HOW-TO GUIDE BUT A MEMIOR OF HOW SHE RAISED HER CHILDREN. > CREWS CAME TO THE RESCUE OF A PUPPY THAT HAD BEEN TRAPPED IN A STORM DRAIN FOR THREE DAYS. THE EFFORT STARTED LAST NIGHT IN RANCHO CORDOVA, CALIFORNIA. CASPER IS A MINIATURE SCHNOUZER. WHEN HIS OWNER JOSEPH HERNANDEZ LET HIM OUT THE OTHER DAY, THE DOG DISAPPEARED. IT TURNS OUT A A NEIGHBOR DOG SNIFFED HIM OUT AND FOUND HIM STUCK IN AN EIGHT INCH PIPE. THEY ENLISTED THE HELP OF LOCAL FIREFIGHTERS, WHO PUT A CAP ON THE END OF A FIREHOSE, THEN WRAPPED A TEDDY BEAR ON THE END, AND USING IT LIKE A PIPECLEANER THEY PUSHED THE DOG OUT THE OTHER END.

That's the percentage of violent thefts on Paris public transit that involve smart phones, such as Apple's iPhone. A crime wave involving the devices - what city officials call "the iPhone effect" - has prompted Paris' transit system to hand out flyers in four languages warning travelers about the risk. French consumers are some of the world's most prolific users of the iPhone: France Telecom has sold more of the phones than any company other than AT&T.

Hear here

"Don't chase rumor stocks. You never know where you are in the chain, whether you're the first to hear it or the last."

Michael Vogelzang, chief investment officer at the investment firm Boston Advisors, on the risks of buying stocks based on merger-and-acquisition rumors. Between 2005 and 2010, news outlets and brokerages reported 1,875 M&A rumors involving 717 companies, according to Bloomberg data. Of those, only 104, or 14.5 percent, were actually acquired. "You're just playing with fire," Vogelzang says.

Heads up

Santa Clara University will host a conference Friday that looks at how innovators are using social networks - both within their organizations and outside them. Speakers will include executives from Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Intuit, SAP and Salesforce.com, as well as academics from UC Davis, San Jose State and the host college.

A Spending Plan Is Like a Diet. It's Hard to Stay on It. | View Clip01/12/2011Korea Times - Los Angeles Edition

What would you do if your wallet became harder to open as your spending approached or exceeded your budget? Would you think twice about where your money was going?

A product designer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who created a working prototype for such a wallet thinks so, and he may be on to something.

Part of the reason so many people spend too much, or fail to stick to budgets, is because parting with money has become an abstraction in increasingly cashless societies . Credit cards

provide immediate gratification, but no immediate consequences. Plucking actual dollars from your pile of cash, research

suggests, is more painful, and leads you to spend less.

Learning to harness emotions to control bad spending habits.

ILLUSTRATIONS BY HEADS OF STATE

There's another factor that prevents people from being model financial citizens (besides, of course, circumstances like joblessness). Humans are notoriously poor at following through

with their plans. Sticking to a budget feels too much like dieting. And we often fail at both for the same reasons: too much focus on the restrictions, not enough on fun. So it's not surprising when people end up bingeing later, more than making up for dollars not spent or calories not consumed.

On Mint.com, a money-tracking Web site, top goals among the nearly half a million users include paying off debt, creating an emergency fund and saving for retirement.

The battle, say money and psychology experts, is finding ways to close the gap between good intentions and human nature. So when every dollar counts, how can you accomplish what you're not necessarily wired to do?

It may be a while before that smart wallet hits the shelves (a hinge in the middle of the wallet, wired to your bank account

balance via a Bluetooth connection to your cellphone, makes it harder to open as you reach a spending limit). The main inventor,

John Kestner, said he's working on bringing its retail price down to $60, to “avoid obvious irony.”

The best budget strategy is not to think about it as budgeting at all. Instead, set up broad goals and automate all savings and other priorities where you can. “Self-control is wonderful, but it's just not sufficient,” said Meir Statman, a finance professor at Santa Clara University in California who focuses on

behavioral finance.

Start by becoming more conscious of your spending, whether you jot it down in a notepad, on a spreadsheet, or on a Web site . Then, give your spending plan a sense of purpose; budgets with a goal, whether it's a vacation or buying a home, tend to be the

most successful.

“For there to be sustainable change, there needs to be some sort of positive motivation,” said Amanda Clayman, a financial therapist in New York. People tend to set unrealistic goals

that don't factor in their lifestyle, she said. “Ultimately, what we want our money to be is an energy source,” Ms. Clayman said. “It should help us get somewhere or do something.”

One strategy to keep spending in check is to employ what's known as mental accounting — dividing your money into separate mental accounts that you treat differently. The easiest way to set up a system, experts suggest, is to put your income into separate

accounts or subaccounts, including one that distinguishes spending money from money needed for recurring household expenses. And think about working backward, as a way to keep things simple: instead of setting up an overly detailed budget, first decide how much you want to save for retirement and other goals, then work with what's left over. If you want to cut spending, attack a few big categories where you can make the biggest difference.

And don't rely on doing it yourself. Arrange to have the money withdrawn from your paycheck. “We need to exploit automaticity,” said Professor David Laibson, a behavioral economist at

Harvard University.

He points to the success of automatic enrollment into retirement savings plans . “We need to build in more of these commitment mechanisms, so we can live up to our intentions.”

WASHINGTON - Has the nation's harsh political rhetoric become more than just talk - to the point of being dangerous?

The attempted assassination of Arizona Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords as she spoke with voters outside a grocery store in Tucson fueled a debate Sunday over whether the sharp partisanship and anti-government language that now mark American politics have created a climate that makes violence against public officials more likely.

As a moderate Democrat who barely won re-election in a state torn by disputes over immigration policy, economic angst and growing mistrust in the government, Giffords was familiar with today's increasingly nasty political rhetoric. Her opponent last fall accused her of betraying her district. Meanwhile, former Alaska governor Sarah Palin's website posted a map with cross hairs on 20 Democrat-held congressional districts Palin was targeting for takeover by Republicans in the November elections. Giffords' was one of them.

"You can't say they're just words; they have consequences," said South Carolina Rep. James Clyburn, a member of the Democratic leadership. He said he worries about the effect of words on "people who may not be clicking on all cylinders."

He cautioned, "We need to take a look at what we're drifting into here."

However, some Republican leaders and conservative activists rejected the suggestion that their hard-edged language on issues such as health care and immigration could fairly be tied to Saturday's attack by a gunman in Tucson that left six people dead, including a federal judge and a 9-year-old girl. Giffords, who was shot in the head, was in critical condition Sunday after surgery.

"This is a terrible politicization of a tragedy," said Rebecca Mansour, an aide to Palin. "We don't know (the suspect's) motive. It doesn't seem like he was motivated by a political ideology. Craziness is not an ideology."

The map didn't show Giffords herself in a gun's cross hairs, only her district, Mansour said. "The language of 'targeting a swing district' has been used long before we used it. We have no idea whether (suspect Jared Lee Loughner) ever saw that graphic."

Some national tragedies - the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, for one, and the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001 - became moments of national unity and solemnity that prompted officeholders and voters to step back from the most polarized politics of the day, at least for a time.

Whether that will happen in the aftermath of the tragedy in Tucson isn't clear, though officials on all sides decried the shooting and offered prayers for Giffords and the other victims. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., announced that Wednesday's scheduled vote to repeal the health care law that was passed by the Democrat-led Congress last session - a measure guaranteed to be the focus of heated rhetoric - would be postponed.

There were calls for comity: President Obama ordered American flags flown at half-staff and called for a national moment of silence today at 11 a.m. ET to honor the victims. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, urged members of Congress to rally together. "At a time when an individual has shown us humanity at its worst, we must rise to the occasion for our nation and show Congress at its best," he said during a conference call for members.

Even so, the instant venues that have accelerated the polarization of U.S. politics - cable TV, talk radio, political blogs, Twitter and more - have become the vehicles for fierce back-and-forths on who was to blame and what should be done.

"When politicians and news commentators use nasty, violent rhetoric, it revs up the base and it fills campaign coffers, but there are repercussions," said Daniel Shea of the Center for Political Participation at Allegheny College in Meadville, Pa. "No one wants to make a direct connection between this fellow's actions and a single political speech or event, but we have to worry about the climate."

Not so fast, said political scientist John Geer of Vanderbilt University. "Shootings happen all the time. It could be political, but it's more likely that this person isn't stable," he said, calling criticism part of democracy. "It's not for the faint-hearted."

The 'Tombstone' of the United States

Arizona is the center of some of the nation's most polarized politics.

The once-booming economy in the Grand Canyon State has been devastated by the mortgage crisis that has left some neighborhoods pockmarked with foreclosed homes. Fears about illegal immigration across the border with Mexico led the state Legislature last year to enact the nation's toughest crackdown. The state also has among the nation's most lenient gun laws.

"We're the 'Tombstone' of the United States of America," Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik told reporters Sunday, a reference to the dusty Arizona town that was the site of the legendary 19th-century gunfight at the O.K. Corral. "I have never been a proponent of letting everybody in this state carry weapons under any circumstances where they want. That's almost where we are."

The blunt-spoken Democratic sheriff called Arizona "the capital" of anti-government rhetoric that is heard across the country, often citing the Wall Street bailout and the health care law as outrageous overreaches by the federal government.

"The rhetoric about hatred, about mistrust of government, about paranoia of how government operates - and to try to inflame the public on a daily basis, 24 hours a day, seven days a week - has impact on people, especially (those) who are unbalanced personalities to begin with," Dupnik said.

The health care law has been a flashpoint in Arizona. During the debate over the bill in August 2009, a protester at a Giffords event dropped a gun; police escorted him out. On the night the law passed in Washington with her support, a window in her district office was smashed.

In the November election, she faced a Republican challenger who had Tea Party support. Jesse Kelly, a businessman and Iraq veteran, used tough language against Giffords, accusing her of having "betrayed" her district on immigration and of having produced "four years of failure" in Congress.

She prevailed and won a third term, but barely.

An 'angrier, confrontational environment'

Just before 10 a.m. Saturday, Giffords typed out a tweet on her iPad. "My 1st Congress on Your Corner starts now," it read. "Please stop by to let me know what is on your mind or tweet me later."

Setting up outside a grocery store on a weekend morning so voters would have a chance to chat is the type of event many members of Congress routinely hold to connect with their constituents. But a few minutes after Gifford sent the message on Twitter, Loughner, 22, walked up to her, pulled out a gun and hit her and 19 others in a spray of gunfire, according to charges filed Sunday.

Ultimately, the victims also may include events such as "Congress on Your Corner." Congressional leaders and U.S. Capitol police are reassessing security for lawmakers and their aides at the Capitol and when they travel to their home states, typically without any security. Republicans and Democrats will hold a rare joint meeting in the House on Wednesday to discuss security measures.

House records indicate only a few assassination attempts against members of Congress: A duel between two House members in 1838, a brutal fistfight over slavery between two House members and a senator in 1856, an attack by Puerto Rican nationalists on Congress in 1954 and the ambush of a California congressman in 1978 while he was on an investigative trip to Guyana.

In this case, Giffords was simply meeting with constituents when the gunman began firing. Fears of such violence could make officeholders more reluctant to hold open events where there often are often no law enforcement officers present.

Rhetorical attacks on officials have been getting tougher, and words that once would have seemed out of bounds now are almost routine. South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson shouted "You lie!" at Obama when the president spoke to a joint session on health care in 2009. Talk-show host Rush Limbaugh has compared the president to Adolf Hitler.

Amid the escalating verbal attacks, concerns about security have been building. During the health care debate last year, chaotic protests led some members of Congress to stop holding town hall meetings. The FBI reports that death threats to members of Congress tripled in the second half of 2010, mostly tied to the issue of health care.

"I don't think there's any doubt but my colleagues are very concerned about the environment in which they are now operating," Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland said Sunday on CBS' Face the Nation. "It has been a much angrier, confrontational environment over the last two or three years than we have experienced in the past."

Some representatives said limits on interacting with voters could make their jobs difficult. "I'm concerned about putting up more walls between me and the people I represent," Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., said on Fox News Sunday.

The nation's angry politics is distressing many Americans. Nearly three of four voters polled in November called the fall election one of the nastiest they had seen, according to a survey by the Allegheny College center. Nearly two-thirds called the negative tone of politics bad for democracy.

The Tucson shootings feel "like a significant moment" to a nation bruised by the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression and the bitter mid-term elections in November, said Kirk Hanson of the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University in California.

"Americans are trying to cope with diminished expectations. We will not be the richest and most successful country in the next 25 years," he said. The shootings reinforce "a soul-searching that many in Washington and around the country have been engaged in. The questions about violent rhetoric were already being asked even before the first shots were fired on Saturday."

Can you tell when a boom has turned into a bubble? One clue: When pop culture starts paying attention. The housing bubble, for example, brought both the TV show Flip This House and a rival on another network, Flip That House.

So if you own a lot of gold, you might regard a recent episode of Saturday Night Live as your first warning. In the opening skit, Bill Hader as China's President Hu Jintao declares that Glenn Beck was right and that "my government should have bought gold. Unfortunately, all our assets were tied up in U.S. Treasury bills."

Back in the real world, gold is trading at about $1,400 an ounce, up from less than $500 five years ago. That's a 23% annualized return, far outstripping the gains on stocks (1.1%) or bonds (6.1%). Fear is driving a lot of the rise.

Investors have always turned to gold in times of trouble, and we have worries to spare these days: a weakening dollar, a deeply divided political climate, and a growing budget deficit.

And in the aftermath of the bursting of two historic bubbles -- dotcom stocks a decade ago and then real estate -- many investors long to hold something that seems to have a timeless, intrinsic value. (Never mind that five years ago the market thought gold was intrinsically worth 65% less.)

You may be wondering whether you should be getting a piece of this action. This time last year, MONEY argued that although gold prices could continue to climb in the short run, the case for gold as an investment no longer made sense.

And that leads to another truth about bubbles: You'll almost never look smart trying to call them, at least at the outset. The real estate bubble was six years in the making; the dotcom bubble lasted five years before bursting.

The gold bubble could stay pumped up for a while. But that doesn't make gold less speculative and risky than it was a year ago.

Three solid reasons to be wary of gold:

1. Bad economic news may not earn you much, and good news could crush you

Gold has traditionally been considered a hedge against high inflation. And gold bulls argue that the money the Federal Reserve has been pumping into the economy will eventually create runaway consumer prices, as more dollars chase too few goods.

Gold, the thinking goes, will hold its purchasing power -- after all, it can't be manufactured at the whim of a central bank. Gold enthusiasts point to a strong precedent for its vigor: During the late 1970s and early '80s, when the inflation rate surged by double digits, gold prices also soared, rewarding investors handsomely.

Right now, though, there's no sign that inflation is about to rear up anytime soon. For all the Fed's efforts to inject money into the system, the folks who have it -- banks, mostly -- have been reluctant to do much besides sit on it, leaving too few dollars chasing too many goods.

As a result, the inflation rate stands at just 1.2%, down sharply from 2.7% in December 2009. In fact, the bond market has been signaling fears of low inflation or even deflation -- a sustained weakness in prices that could hold down the economy for years. The yield on the 10-year Treasury bond is about 3%. Bond investors wouldn't accept such paltry yields if they saw high inflation.

Maybe bond investors are just wrong, and the gold traders are right. Or perhaps, says HSBC commodities analyst James Steel, investors are hedging their risks by buying bonds as a defense against the short-term threat of deflation, and gold as a store of value "in case inflation eventually takes off."

That's plausible. But the case for gold depends a lot on what you think "takes off" means. Many market observers do believe that inflation is going to rise eventually. The Fed seems to be trying to engineer at least a modest increase, and there's hardly anywhere to go but up from here.

However, a return to 3% inflation or even something a bit higher isn't what many gold investors are betting on. Many are concerned about low-probability catastrophes like the collapse of the global money system or a U.S. debt default. It's not that those things are impossible -- it's that gold owners have to worry about what happens to their investment if those things don't happen.

"Gold is already fully pricing in some very nasty scenarios, including high inflation," says Jason Hsu, chief investment officer at Research Affiliates. "The price is going to react in a very negative way to any reality that deviates from that expectation."

That reality would include a continuation of the sluggish, unemployment-ridden, but modestly growing economy we seem to be stuck in now.

And if the economy turns back to real health, watch out. From 1980 through 2005, gold earned zilch. In fact, if you had bought gold at its peak in 1980, you still wouldn't be back to even today on an inflation-adjusted basis.

"When the economy moves from recession to prosperity, there will be little reason to own gold," says Mark T. Williams, who teaches risk management at Boston University. "And speculators will learn the hard way that gold in times of financial stability is hazardous to investor health."

2. Sure, the dollar has its problems, but just look at the other guys

Related to fears of inflation is the bet that the U.S. dollar is about to tank. Part of the argument here is that the Fed's latest easing efforts will spook foreign investors. Or that fear of rising U.S. deficits will cause China and other sovereign investors to pull out of Treasuries.

When overseas investors sell Treasuries, that should mean less demand for dollars. And if the dollar falls, investors around the world tend to gravitate toward gold. Since June, in fact, the dollar has dropped about 10% against a trade-weighted basket of foreign currencies. Gold in the same period shot up 14%.

If you think the dollar is going to fall against foreign currencies, a better way to play it is to skip gold and simply own mutual funds that invest overseas. Most international funds hold stocks in their local currencies, so you get a jolt of extra returns when those currencies rise.

And even if the dollar turns out to be stronger, you'll still participate in the growth of the underlying business and get some dividend income to cushion the blow.

More to the point, reports of the death of the dollar have been greatly exaggerated. As much as you may worry about the deficit, the future direction of the dollar doesn't just depend on what's going on in the U.S. In early November, for instance, the greenback shot up 3.5% in little more than a week amid fears about government debt problems in Europe. Gold plunged by about the same percentage.

In fact, many experts contend that the dollar could soon stabilize -- and might even reverse course and start rising against currencies like the euro and the Japanese yen if the Fed's moves actually work at spurring the U.S. economy.

"The U.S. dollar is the best-looking horse in the glue factory," says Nariman Behravesh, chief economist for the information and forecasting group IHS. "Many economies around the world are in far worse shape."

What about China dumping Treasuries?

Props to the writers at SNL for catching the zeitgeist, but it's unlikely that President Hu regrets China's having invested so much in the U.S. By financing U.S. debt China has kept its exports to our shores humming. That can't last forever, and there's always a risk that this trade pattern will unwind too fast. But at the moment, the Chinese seem to need us as much as we need them.

3. The gold boom has the earmarks of a speculators' rally

Scientists sometimes call a bad idea "not even wrong" -- meaning that it's so groundless it can't even be tested. In the same vein, you could say that gold isn't even overvalued. Because how would you value the stuff in the first place?

Unlike a bond, gold doesn't promise to pay you back with interest; unlike a stock, it doesn't have any hope of generating earnings over time. If gold were a house, it would be one you couldn't live in or collect rent from.

Unless you want to flash some bling, buying gold today is just a bet that someone else will want to pay you more for it tomorrow. That's why even advocates of diversified portfolios, like Vanguard founder Jack Bogle, often rule out gold investing as speculation. "The 'greater fool' theory is not a convincing argument for buying gold," says adviser William Bernstein, author of The Investor's Manifesto.

This actually makes the argument that gold is a "bubble" a little bit tricky. Since it produces no earnings in the first place, you can't say gold's price/earnings ratio is too high to justify the risk. But you can tease out some indicators that demand for gold is overinflated right now.

An oft-cited argument in favor of high prices is that gold is in limited supply -- new mines take up to a decade to come online. But as the chart above shows, the demand side of the equation has changed a lot.

In 2005 only 16% of the demand for gold came from investors� most went to industrial users and jewelers. Now investors reflect almost 40% of the demand. As a result, gold prices are more exposed to speculators' whims.

Meir Statman, finance professor at Santa Clara University and author of What Investors Really Want, points out that investors buy assets for "expressive" and emotional as well as economic benefits -- and owning gold expresses a lot right now.

"It gives you the opportunity to convey to others that you're a 'player' like the hedge fund managers, or that you're a 'patriot' opposed to the country's growing debt," says Statman.

True, some investors refuse gold for expressive reasons too. Charlie Munger, longtime right-hand man of Warren Buffett, recently dismissed "hoarding" gold, telling an audience, "Even if it works, you're a jerk." But right now, gold bugs have the buzz. Are you comfortable betting this mood won't change -- or that you'll sense when to get out in time?

Gold fans often lean hard on history. Although gold may have hit new highs in nominal terms, the bulls note that it hasn't come close to hitting its peak price after accounting for inflation.

Figure that into the 1980 high of $850 and you get a price of around $2,300 an ounce -- some 63% higher than where gold is trading today. But that is just the greater fool theory dressed up with charts: If people paid $2,300 once, maybe they'll repeat that mistake. Well, in 2000 investors were willing to pay 45 times earnings for stocks. Want to bet they'll do that again?

Still can't resist the luster?

There's always that sneaking suspicion that maybe the doomsayers are right. In an economy where nothing grows and paper currency goes for kindling, yes, you'll be glad to own gold. Plus, you're only human. When people around you seem to be getting rich on gold, it's hard to sit idly by.

That's why Harold Evensky, a Coral Gables, Fla., financial planner, doesn't think it's crazy to indulge in a little preventive speculation. Use no more than 1% of your total portfolio to play your gold hunches.

"If that prevents you from putting 15% or 20% of your portfolio into gold, it can be effective," says Evensky.

If you want to take a flier on unlikely events, consider a high-octane wager. You could plunk down a small -- emphasis on small -- amount of money to buy call options on the SPDR Gold Trust, an exchange-traded fund that invests in the metal.

The ETF cost around $138 a share in December. But for $3 you can buy the right to snap up GLD at $200 anytime until January 2012. If gold doesn't rise, your small investment is wiped out. But if it actually hits its $2,300 peak, the GLD will go for around $230, earning you $30.

That's a 10-bagger on your $3 investment, way better than you'll get buying the coins hawked by talk-radio yakkers. And if you sleep better knowing you have a Plan Z on the off chance those guys and the SNL writers are right, all the better.

THE LATEST JOB OUTLOOK APPEARS BRIGHT FOR THIS YEAR'S COLLEGE GRADUATES. COMPANIES ARE ONCE AGAIN HIRING. AS LISA AMIN LISA AMIN GULEZIAN REPORTS, YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE AN EXPERT TO GET ONE. NATIONWIDE TENS OF THOUSANDS OF COLLEGE STUDENTS ARE ALREADY STARTING THEIR JOB SEARCH. I HOPE I CAN GET A JOB. WE WILL SEE JIE. THAT'S WHY THESE STUDENTS ARE TRYING TO GET A JUMP START. HERE AT SANTA CLARA UNIVERSITY'S JOB FAIR. SEVERAL COMPANIES ARE PRESENT AND ALL HAVE JOBS TO OFFER. EMPLOYERS ARE MORE CONVINCED THAT THE ECONOMY IS ON A STEADY PATH UPWARDS. ACCORDING TO THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF COLLEGES AND EMPLOYERS, THE 2011 JOB OUTLOOK FOR NEW GRADUATES IS GOOD. COMPANIES PLAN TO HIRE 13.5%MORE GRADUATES WITH A BACHELOR'S DEGREE THAN LAST YEAR. THE FUTURE IS VERY BRIGHT. WE ARE DOING A LOT OF HIRING RIGHT NOW. BIG NAMES ARE AT THIS JOB FAIR, McAFEE AND LOCKHEED-MARTIN AND SOME WANT THEIR FUTURE HIRES TO HAVE VERY SPECIFIC SKILLS. FOR THESE COMPANIES, THEY ARE NOT JUST LOOKING FOR TECH KEYS. STUDENTS WITH DEGREES IN SOCIAL SCIENCES, LANGUAGES AND ARTS ALSO HAVE A CHANCE AT A HIGH-TECH JOB. IT IS NOT JUST ABOUT YOUR ACADEMIC DISCIPLINE. IT IS LING BEING ABLE TO BEING ABLE TO TALK ABOUT YOUR PERSONAL TRAITS. THE THINGS THAT AREN'T THE DEGREE YOU ARE GRANTED. YOU CAN TAKE A MARKETING BACKGROUND AND DO SOMETHING ELSE WITH IT. IT IS A LITTLE ROUGH RIGHT NOW. I HAVE APPLIED TO 30 JOBS AT LEAST. MANY STUDENTS ARE STILL HAVING A HARD TIME LANDING A JOB. SOME TOLD ME TONIGHT, STAYING IN SCHOOL LONGER MAY BE THE BEST WAY TO DEAL WITH THE SITUATION. IN SANTA CLARA, LISA AMIN GULEZIAN, ABC7 NEWS. ABC7 IS SPONSORING A JOB FAIR WITH THE JOB JOURNAL TWO WEEKS FROM TODAY. IT IS ON WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 26th FROM NOON TO 4:00 AT THE SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO CONVENTION CENTER ON SOUTH AIRPORT BOULEVARD. WE HAVE A LINK AT ABC7NEWS. COM. YOU WILL FIND IT UNDER SEE IT ON TV.

THE LATEST JOB OUTLOOK APPEARS BRIGHT FOR THIS YEAR'S COLLEGE GRADUATES. COMPANIES ARE ONCE AGAIN HIRING. AS LISA AMIN LISA AMIN GULEZIAN REPORTS, YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE AN EXPERT TO GET ONE. NATIONWIDE TENS OF THOUSANDS OF COLLEGE STUDENTS ARE ALREADY STARTING THEIR JOB SEARCH. I HOPE I CAN GET A JOB. WE WILL SEE JIE. THAT'S WHY THESE STUDENTS ARE TRYING TO GET A JUMP START. HERE AT SANTA CLARA UNIVERSITY'S JOB FAIR. SEVERAL COMPANIES ARE PRESENT AND ALL HAVE JOBS TO OFFER. EMPLOYERS ARE MORE CONVINCED THAT THE ECONOMY IS ON A STEADY PATH UPWARDS. ACCORDING TO THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF COLLEGES AND EMPLOYERS, THE 2011 JOB OUTLOOK FOR NEW GRADUATES IS GOOD. COMPANIES PLAN TO HIRE 13.5%MORE GRADUATES WITH A BACHELOR'S DEGREE THAN LAST YEAR. THE FUTURE IS VERY BRIGHT. WE ARE DOING A LOT OF HIRING RIGHT NOW. BIG NAMES ARE AT THIS JOB FAIR, McAFEE AND LOCKHEED-MARTIN AND SOME WANT THEIR FUTURE HIRES TO HAVE VERY SPECIFIC SKILLS. FOR THESE COMPANIES, THEY ARE NOT JUST LOOKING FOR TECH KEYS. STUDENTS WITH DEGREES IN SOCIAL SCIENCES, LANGUAGES AND ARTS ALSO HAVE A CHANCE AT A HIGH-TECH JOB. IT IS NOT JUST ABOUT YOUR ACADEMIC DISCIPLINE. IT IS LING BEING ABLE TO BEING ABLE TO TALK ABOUT YOUR PERSONAL TRAITS. THE THINGS THAT AREN'T THE DEGREE YOU ARE GRANTED. YOU CAN TAKE A MARKETING BACKGROUND AND DO SOMETHING ELSE WITH IT. IT IS A LITTLE ROUGH RIGHT NOW. I HAVE APPLIED TO 30 JOBS AT LEAST. MANY STUDENTS ARE STILL HAVING A HARD TIME LANDING A JOB. SOME TOLD ME TONIGHT, STAYING IN SCHOOL LONGER MAY BE THE BEST WAY TO DEAL WITH THE SITUATION. IN SANTA CLARA, LISA AMIN GULEZIAN, ABC7 NEWS. ABC7 IS SPONSORING A JOB FAIR WITH THE JOB JOURNAL TWO WEEKS FROM TODAY. IT IS ON WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 26th FROM NOON TO 4:00 AT THE SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO CONVENTION CENTER ON SOUTH AIRPORT BOULEVARD. WE HAVE A LINK AT ABC7NEWS. COM. YOU WILL FIND IT UNDER SEE IT ON TV.

Secretary of State Ross Miller appointed Scott F. Gilles to serve as Deputy for Elections, replacing Matt Grifin who resigned in December to go into private practice.

Gilles, 34, is an attorney in Reno and senior associate at Fahrendorf, Viloria, Oliphant & Oster since February, 2006.

He was a law clerk for First Judicial District Court Judge Michael Griffin, now retired, and graduated from University of Nevada, Reno and Santa Clara University School of Law.

"It seems there are challenges to state election laws every cycle and Scott will be prepared to handle whatever comes our way, whether a candidate or a citizen challenges a decision I make as Chief Elections Officer, or whether we initiate action in order to maintain and improve accountability and transparency in election law," Miller said in a written statement.

Miller added that Gilles will spend much of his time working with legislators to advocate for election-related bills the Secretary of State hopes pass during the upcoming session.

Gilles' salary, set by the legislature, will be $107,465 if he chooses a benefit package with employee contributions for retirement or $97,033 if he opts for an employer-funded plan. His take-home will be 4.6 percent lower than the set salary due to mandatory furloughs for state employees.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, Jan. 12, 2011 at 09:58 AM and is filed under The Political Eye. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response.

Some mothers and daughters bond over pedicures, shopping for handbags or taking in the latest rom-com at the cineplex.

Carol and Katie McCollam prefer helping out at the Special Olympics. Pam and Caroline Elmets enjoy spending hours filling lunch bags to overflowing with bagels and cream cheese, yogurt, granola and cheese sticks for homeless children.

Each mother-daughter team receives their assignments from the National Charity League, a nationwide nonprofit organization that fosters bonding through volunteerism. Sacramento is one of 12 chapters in Northern California.

The daughters, dubbed Ticktockers, begin volunteering in seventh grade and continue for six years. The Patronesses, also known as moms, and daughters spend 15 hours volunteering and 15 hours on league work - including meetings and organization projects  each year. League hours drop to 10 for senior girls.

The group's membership application period runs through March 15.

The goal is to not only create a stronger mother-daughter bond but also to provide community service, leadership development and cultural experiences, said Pam Elmets, who heads the Sacramento chapter of 90 mothers and 99 daughters.

Elmets has been in the league since 2002 and has about three more years to go with her soon-to-be 14-year-old daughter, Caroline. Elmets began participating with daughter Lauren, now 21, at a friend's suggestion.

"My daughters are very fortunate, and I think it's important for them to help those who are less fortunate," she said. "Instilling value at an early age is a good thing."

Lauren Elmets, a junior at Santa Clara University, said the lessons she learned while volunteering at St. John's Shelter Program for Women and Children and chairing the annual carnival for shelter residents helped her learn how to communicate more with people and gave her a better understanding of the trials and triumphs of others.

"Being able to have that experience has made my life a lot better," she said.

For Carol McCallum, volunteering alongside her daughter has helped her forge an even closer relationship with 17-year-old Katie and from the beginning allowed McCallum to watch her daughter's compassion, sensitivity and empathy flourish.

The pair clocked their first round of NCL hours at the Special Olympics, helping direct athletes in the lunch line.

"My daughter is a little on the quiet side and hadn't had much interaction with people with special needs," McCallum said. "Within an hour's time, it was so wonderful watching her comfort level completely change. She was putting her arms around the athletes' shoulders, asking them if they'd like a drink and helping them."

When her daughter was in eighth grade, McCallum served as the league's liaison to the Albert Einstein Residence Center, a low-income senior housing facility in the Arden area.

She asked Katie and a fellow Ticktocker if they'd like to create an activities program for the entire residence, since the center didn't have an activities director at the time.

Katie and her cohort developed a plan, created a Powerpoint presentation and presented their concept to the center's board of residents and staff.

"I've never been so proud in my life," Carol McCallum said. "It brought tears to my eyes watching them speak in front of those seniors."

The center adopted several of the girls' suggested activities, and it later spurred the hiring of an activities director, she said.

Since then, the McCallums have volunteered repeatedly at the Special Olympics and made lunches or snacks monthly for homeless children at Mustard Seed School at Loaves & Fishes.

Katie McCallum is now volunteering with Women's Empowerment, a nonprofit offering an eight-week job-readiness program for homeless women and leading a clothing drive for the group at Casa Roble High School as part of her senior project. Carol McCallum will be mentoring a Women's Empowerment participant.

"This has been a six-year reminder of how much we should be thankful for and how much we should give to others who don't have much to be thankful for," Carol McCallum said.

Katie McCallum said the memories made while volunteering with her mom are among her most cherished.

"We've had a lot of fun times," she said. "We volunteered before NCL, but I think this has kept us on track when our lives might have veered apart."

SUCH TALK IS REGULARLY HEARD ON TVAND TALK RADIO AND TONIGHT THAT WAS THE TOPIC OF DISCUSSION IN SANTA CLARA UNIVERSITY.01/12/2011Channel 2 News at 10 PM - KTVU-TV

SINCE IS THE TUCSON SHOOTINGS THERE HAS BEEN PLENTY SAID ABOUT THE RHETORIC AS A POTENTIAL MOATIVE. SUCH TALK IS REGULARLY HEARD ON TVAND TALK RADIO AND TONIGHT THAT WAS THE TOPIC OF DISCUSSION IN SANTA CLARA UNIVERSITY. LIVE NOW TONIGHT WITH THE REPORT. Reporter: FRANK, TWO OF THE BRIGHTEST MINDS, JUDICIAL MINDS IN CALIFORNIA SPOKE AT SANTA CLARA UNIVERSITY TONIGHT ON A TOPIC IN HAS CAPTURED THE ATTENTION OF THE NATION THIS WEEK. CIVIL PART SAN DISCOURSE. NEWLY SEATED CALIFORNIA STATE SUPREME COURT CHIEF JUSTICE AND US NINTH CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS CHIEF JUDGE SHARED THEIR IDEAS TONIGHT ON COURTS IN A CONTENTIOUS CLIMATE. THE JUDGE WAS A FRIEND OF THE FEDERAL JUDGE WHO WAS KILLED IN THE ARIZONA SHOOTINGS. SOME SENSE WE ARE ALL AT THE MERCY OF FREAK ACCIDENTS OR PEOPLE WHO ARE WANT TO HURT US. CAN GET TO US IF THEY WANT TO. Reporter: THE STATE SUPREME COURT CHIEF JUSTICE WAS HERE WITH VISIBLE SECURITY. JUDGES HAVE BECOME MORE PUBLIC. PEOPLE HAVE TAKEN GREATER ATTENTION. CASES CALL ATTENTION TO A JUDGE'S ROLL. Reporter: BOTH JURISTS AGREE THAT THE JUDGE KILLED IN ARIZONA DOES NOT APPEAR TO HAVE BEEN TARGETED AND THAT THE SUSPECT APPEARS TO BE MENTALLY UNSTABLE AND NOT INFLUENCED BY PART SAN VISITR PARTISAN. OUR WILLINGNESS TO EXPRESS OURSELVES POLITICALLY IN A PASSIONATEWAY. WE ARE AWARE OF OUR DECISIONS AND WE ARE AWAY THAT THEY CAN BE SENSITIVE AND THAT THEY HAVE AN IMPACT BUT NEVER THELESS IT DOESN'T DETOUR FROES DOING WHAT'S RIGHT AND THAT IS FOLLOW THE RULE OF LAW. Reporter: FEDERAL JUDGES ARE APPOINTED FOR LIFE BUT VOTERS HERE IN CALIFORNIA DECIDE IF AND HOW LONG STATE JUDGES REMAIN ON THE BENCH. LIVE IN SANTA CLARA, KTVU CHANNEL 2 NEWS.

SO WHAT KIND OF MOTHER IS THE BEST MOTHER? ONE AUTHOR SAYS THAT CHINESE WOMEN HAVE EARNED THAT TITLE, BUT IT MAY NOT ALWAYS BE PRETTY. HERE IS KIDDO WITH A RECENT ARTICLE THAT IS RAISING QUESTIONS SHE IS PROOF THAT ALL CHINESE MOTHERS ARE NOT CREATED EQUAL. I KNOW WHAT I BELIEVE, AND I BELIEVE IN CHOICES. BUT A CONTROVERSIAL ARTICLE IN THE WALL STREET JOURNAL ENTITLED " WHY CHINESE MOTHER ARE SUPERIOR " AS PARENTS TALKING. IN IF THE AUTHOR PROMOTES AN ALTAR STRICT PARENTING STYLE PRINTING SLEEPOVERS, PLAY DATES, TV AND COMPUTER GAMES. SHE SAID THAT HER CHILDREN WERE NEVER ALLOWED TO GET ANYTHING LESS THAN AN LA AND THEY WERE FORCED TO PLAY PIANO OR VIOLIN FOR HOURS WITHOUT A MEAL OR BATHROOM BREAKS. SHE WAS ALSO RAISED IN A STRICT FAMILY BUT SHE SAID THAT PARENTING STYLE WAS NOT FOR HER. I CAN DEFINITELY IDENTIFY WITH MANY OF THE PRACTICES IN THE ARTICLE. IT IS REMARKABLY PROVOCATIVE. THIS PSYCHOLOGY PROFESSOR AT SANTA CLARA UNIVERSITY WARNS ABOUT EXTREME STYLES A PARENT THING. THERE ARE RISKS INVOLVED IN ANY SORT OF PARENTING STYLE. IF YOU ARE TOO PERMISSIVE THAN THERE ARE RISKS. IF YOU ARE TOO STRICT IN CONTROLLING THEN THERE ARE RISKS THERE. WHICH RISKS ARE YOU WILLING TO TAKE CANNOT TAKE? AND WAS CONSISTENT WITH YOU AS A PERSON? AS FOR HER, HER KIDS ARE IN A MONTESSORI SCHOOL WHICH PROMOTES PERSONAL CHOICE. CULTIVATING CREATIVITY IN THE CHILD, AND NURTURING THE WHOLE BEING, IT IS WAY MORE THAN JUST ACADEMIC FOCUS. IT IS ABOUT GIVING CHOICES. A VIP PARTY AT THE BRAND-NEW WORLDIS A BETTER WORLD.

Women's rights advocate remembered in Sauk County | View Clip01/12/2011Wisconsin Public Radio

Santa Clara University History Professor Nancy Unger was featured on Wisconsin Public Radio, talking about Belle La Follette's campaign against the segregation of Washington, D.C. that had been ordered into place by Woodrow Wilson in 1913

A mind is a terrible thing to waste | View Clip01/11/2011Hutchinson News

By Daniel Price - Community columnist

Enrollment is up at junior colleges across Kansas and down, or level, at the state universities. This was the news last fall. It has been the case for at least a decade and, believe it or not, applies not just to Kansas but also across the nation. What are we to make of this situation? Obviously the costs associated with a four-year degree explain it; its the economy, stupid. Anybody can figure it out. Its as plain as the nose on your face. Or is it?

There is no doubt money is a major factor in choosing a college and deciding what program to study, but thats not the whole story. Could it be something more disruptive and more sinister is involved here? Yes, on both accounts.

You see, a university education isnt what it used to be. Its not even the place it used to be. Ever since the late Allan Blooms Closing of the American Mind, many observers have known all is not well with the university today and that parents and students have no guarantee that the vast cost, which is still rising, will provide a viable product. In his book Reforming Our Universities, the social critic David Horowitz points out that American universities have for years been radioactive deserts of propagandizing, with conservative voices among both faculty and students vilified, marginalized and silenced. The university, he argues, was conceived as an institution dedicated to the pluralism of ideas and values and scientific methods of inquiry and as such it was a cornerstone of the democratic system. Its hard to believe Harvard and Yale were begun in order to train ministers of the Gospel. How far have we come? Consider the pabulum that is indicative of the gushy classes offered today. Alien Sex, University of Rochester; The Joy of Garbage, Santa Clara University; Philosophy and Star Trek, Georgetown University; Zombies in Popular Media, Columbia College; Field Equipment Operation, aka Tractor Driving, UC Davis; Far Side Entomology, Oregon State; Arguing With Judge Judy: Popular Logic on TV Judge Shows, UC Berkeley.

Believe it or not, you can major in such topics as: taxation, herbology, leisure studies, blacksmithing, global governance, comedy studies and enigmatology (the creation and solution of puzzles). Of course, the politically correct programs of womans studies, black studies and Hispanic studies are not worth the paper the degree is printed on.

In an article entitled The Idea of a University that appeared in The American Spectator, Roger Scruton writes, Most students now graduate in soft subjects that require ideological rather than intellectual growth, and most spend their leisure hours in ways of which their parents would not approve. He continues, What is expected of the student in many courses in the humanities and social sciences is ideological conformity, rather than critical appraisal, and censorship has become accepted as a legitimate part of the academic way of life. It is worth noting that attendance at private four-year institutions is also up, so it seems students are not just opposed to state schools. Why the turn off? Could it have anything to do with radical professors who use their tenure to indoctrinate and are more concerned with their latest research project than teaching the next generation? Maybe its the soft classes that pass for knowledge with no academic rigor but only a weighted A. Or does it relate to speech codes and political indoctrination that demeans conservative views and people of faith. Yes, yes, and yes.

What ever happened to the opportunity to take courses from any school around the world via the computer, thus making bricks and mortar obsolete? Will it ever happen? Louis Menand, in his groundbreaking treatise entitled The Marketplace of Ideas: Reform and Resistance in the American University, believes the modern university may be on the brink of major changes owing to technological breakthroughs that have changed the ways in which knowledge is acquired and distributed. The plodding pace of the research university, he suggests, is increasingly out of step with the times, especially with the acquired habits of the youngsters now entering it. I hope hes right; lets get on with it. State universities are close to pricing their product out of the market now and will soon run off the majority of students to find their educational opportunities elsewhere. To borrow the old tag line from the United Negro College Fund: . Daniel Price is a pastor and teacher who loves discussing the issues over coffee with anyone who will buy. You may reach him at .

Let it be clear: the high-profile case pitting freelance photographer Daniel Morel to Agence France Presse, Getty Images and CNN is not just a personal fight between one photographer against larger corporations. It's a case that could impact all photographers. Here's why.

On 23 December, Daniel Morel found himself in a much stronger position in his legal fight against Agence France Presse when a judge refused to dismiss the photographer's claims. Already, we've seen the impact that decision has had. Late last week, CBS settled with the photographer, with terms that strongly favour Morel, BJP understands.

Now, let's come back to the judge's decision, as I summarised it in a previous report here.

Beyond the fact that District Judge William H. Pauley makes it clear that anything posted on Twitter and TwitPic can't be freely re-used and distributed by Agence France Presse – and any other user for that matter, the most notable finding in this memorandum and court order relates to Copyright Management Information (or metadata), which is defined in section 1202 of the United States' Digital Millenium Copyright Act.

As I wrote in the summary of Judge Pauley's findings, the Act defines CMI as any information conveyed in connection with a work in digital form – such as title, name of the author of the work or any other identifying information.

In this particular case, the images posted on TwitPic didn't have any embedded metadata – the information you usually find when opening an image in Photoshop and other similar applications. In previous legal cases, courts only found that section 1202 had been violated if the embedded metadata had been removed or altered. However, in this particular case, District Judge Pauley believes that the information doesn't have to be embedded – it can be shown alongside the image, as it was the case with Morel's images.

When Morel uploaded his 13 photographs, he did it under the “photomorel” and “Morel” handled, which were displayed alongside and below his images on his Twitter and TwitPic pages. The Court says that anyone, including Agence France Presse, understood that it meant Morel was the author of these images. Consequently, says Judge Pauley, by failing to include that information when it distributed and benefited financially from the images, Agence France Presse violated section 1202 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

As Eric Goldman, an Associate Professor of Law at Santa Clara University School of Law, points out, it's not the first time that a court has found that “failing to capture and republish metadata outside the file itself could violate 1202.” He adds: “Should more courts jump on this bandwagon, expect 1202 to become the copyright plaintiff's favorite new toy in 2011.”

What does that mean for photographers in the United States or for international photographers that have registered their images with the US Copyright Office? If these photographers find that an organization, with a legal presence in the US, have used their images without authorisation and credit, they will be able to argue violation of section 1202 and use Judge Pauley's comments to support their claims – as well as any other judges who ruled similarly.

For example, the Daily Mail, which is currently being sued for $1,5m after it used, without authorisation, images captured by Mavrix Photo, could be found to have violated section 1202 if it didn't credit the images to Mavrix Photo. In fact, the Daily Mail could get into much more trouble for the countless images it credits to “The Internet” – if these images, of course, have been shot by US-based photographers or have been registered with the US Copyright Office.

Daniel Morel's case, if it goes to a full trial – Agence France Presse, as we revealed, is looking to settle it before it reaches that stage – could become jurisprudence. But, more broadly, it's bound to raise awareness among the photographic community, and hopefully the wider public, that everything you find online isn't free to use – an excuse that has been, constantly, used by the Daily Mail and countless media organisations' CEOs and managers to justify the “stealing “ of images.

What about Getty Images?

Beyond this, Daniel Morel's case has revealed deep flaws in Agence France Presse's and Getty Images' practices, as Judge Pauley wrote in his order. While we knew that AFP acted improperly in this particular case, now we also find that Getty Images shares responsibility, according to the judge.

Indeed, why did Getty Images continue to distribute and profit from photographs it knew didn't belong to Lisandro Suero, in the first place, and later on, weren't even authorised for distribution? So far, Getty Images has declined to comment on the case, arguing that the images came from Agence France Presse – via its distribution deal. Getty also tells BJP that it cannot comment as the case is still ongoing.

But that's just not good enough. Judge Pauley writes: “Morel's allegations that AFP and Getty knew the images were his, disregarded his rights, and licensed his images to third parties are sufficient to plead knowledge and inducement of infringement." In short, Getty Images knew it was doing something wrong and kept doing it anyway. Why?

Right now, BJP understands that Agence France Presse and Getty Images are actively seeking a settlement, but why would a photographer who's winning his case settle?

The hope is that, when all is said and done, this case will push Agence France Presse and Getty Images to review what went wrong, and, maybe, just maybe, become more transparent in their practices. They stand to benefit, especially considering the hit their brands have taken with this case and Judge Pauley's recent order.

Has the nation's harsh political rhetoric become more than just talk - to the point of being dangerous?

The attempted assassination of Arizona Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords as she spoke with voters outside a grocery store in Tucson fueled a debate Sunday over whether the sharp partisanship and anti-government language that now mark American politics have created a climate that makes violence against public officials more likely.

For live updates see The Arizona Republic.

As a moderate Democrat who barely won re-election in a state torn by disputes over immigration policy, economic angst and growing mistrust in the government, Giffords was familiar with today's increasingly nasty political rhetoric. Her opponent last fall accused her of betraying her district. Meanwhile, former Alaska governor Sarah Palin's website posted a map with cross hairs on 20 Democrat-held congressional districts Palin was targeting for takeover by Republicans in the November elections. Giffords' was one of them.

"You can't say they're just words; they have consequences," said South Carolina Rep. James Clyburn, a member of the Democratic leadership. He said he worries about the effect of words on "people who may not be clicking on all cylinders."

He cautioned, "We need to take a look at what we're drifting into here."

However, some Republican leaders and conservative activists rejected the suggestion that their hard-edged language on issues such as health care and immigration could fairly be tied to Saturday's attack by a gunman in Tucson that left six people dead, including a federal judge and a 9-year-old girl. Giffords, who was shot in the head, was in critical condition Sunday after surgery.

"This is a terrible politicization of a tragedy," said Rebecca Mansour, an aide to Palin. "We don't know (the suspect's) motive. It doesn't seem like he was motivated by a political ideology. Craziness is not an ideology."

The map didn't show Giffords herself in a gun's cross hairs, only her district, Mansour said. "The language of 'targeting a swing district' has been used long before we used it. We have no idea whether (suspect Jared Lee Loughner) ever saw that graphic."

Some national tragedies - the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, for one, and the Sept. 11 terror attacks in 2001 - became moments of national unity and solemnity that prompted officeholders and voters to step back from the most polarized politics of the day, at least for a time.

Whether that will happen in the aftermath of the tragedy in Tucson isn't clear, though officials on all sides decried the shooting and offered prayers for Giffords and the other victims. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., announced that Wednesday's scheduled vote to repeal the health care law that was passed by the Democrat-led Congress last session - a measure guaranteed to be the focus of heated rhetoric - would be postponed.

There were calls for comity: President Obama ordered American flags flown at half-mast and called for a national moment of silence today at 11 a.m. ET to honor the victims. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, urged members of Congress to rally together. "At a time when an individual has shown us humanity at its worst, we must rise to the occasion for our nation and show Congress at its best," he said during a conference call for members.

Even so, the instant venues that have accelerated the polarization of U.S. politics - cable TV, talk radio, political blogs, Twitter and more - have become the vehicles for fierce back-and-forths on who was to blame and what should be done.

"When politicians and news commentators use nasty, violent rhetoric, it revs up the base and it fills campaign coffers, but there are repercussions," said Daniel Shea of the Center for Political Participation at Allegheny College in Meadville, Pa. "No one wants to make a direct connection between this fellow's actions and a single political speech or event, but we have to worry about the climate."

(3 of 5)

Not so fast, said political scientist John Geer of Vanderbilt University. "Shootings happen all the time. It could be political, but it's more likely that this person isn't stable," he said, calling criticism part of democracy. "It's not for the faint-hearted."

The 'Tombstone' of the United States

Arizona is the center of some of the nation's most polarized politics.

The once-booming economy in the Grand Canyon State has been devastated by the mortgage crisis that has left some neighborhoods pockmarked with foreclosed homes. Fears about illegal immigration across the border with Mexico led the state Legislature last year to enact the nation's toughest crackdown. The state also has among the nation's most lenient gun laws.

"We're the 'Tombstone' of the United States of America," Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik told reporters Sunday, a reference to the dusty Arizona town that was the site of the legendary 19th-century gunfight at the O.K. Corral. "I have never been a proponent of letting everybody in this state carry weapons under any circumstances where they want. That's almost where we are."

The blunt-spoken Democratic sheriff called Arizona "the capital" of anti-government rhetoric that is heard across the country, often citing the Wall Street bailout and the health care law as outrageous overreaches by the federal government.

"The rhetoric about hatred, about mistrust of government, about paranoia of how government operates - and to try to inflame the public on a daily basis, 24 hours a day, seven days a week - has impact on people, especially (those) who are unbalanced personalities to begin with," Dupnik said.

The health care law has been a flashpoint in Arizona. During the debate over the bill in August 2009, a protester at a Giffords event dropped a gun; police escorted him out. On the night the law passed in Washington with her support, a window in her district office was smashed.

In the November election, she faced a Republican challenger who had Tea Party support. Jesse Kelly, a businessman and Iraq veteran, used tough language against Giffords, accusing her of having "betrayed" her district on immigration and of having produced "four years of failure" in Congress.

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She prevailed and won a third term, but barely.

An 'angrier, confrontational environment'

Just before 10 a.m. Saturday, Giffords typed out a tweet on her iPad. "My 1st Congress on Your Corner starts now," it read. "Please stop by to let me know what is on your mind or tweet me later."

Setting up outside a grocery store on a weekend morning so voters would have a chance to chat is the type of event many members of Congress routinely hold to connect with their constituents. But a few minutes after Gifford sent the message on Twitter, Loughner, 22, walked up to her, pulled out a gun and hit her and 19 others in a spray of gunfire, according to charges filed Sunday.

Ultimately, the victims also may include events such as "Congress on Your Corner." Congressional leaders and U.S. Capitol police are reassessing security for lawmakers and their aides at the Capitol and when they travel to their home states, typically without any security. Republicans and Democrats will hold a rare joint meeting in the House on Wednesday to discuss security measures.

House records indicate only a few assassination attempts against members of Congress: A duel between two House members in 1838, a brutal fistfight over slavery between two House members and a senator in 1856, an attack by Puerto Rican nationalists on Congress in 1954 and the ambush of a California congressman in 1978 while he was on an investigative trip to Guyana.

In this case, Giffords was simply meeting with constituents when the gunman began firing. Fears of such violence could make officeholders more reluctant to hold open events where there often are often no law enforcement officers present.

Rhetorical attacks on officials have been getting tougher, and words that once would have seemed out of bounds now are almost routine. South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson shouted "You lie!" at Obama when the president spoke to a joint session on health care in 2009. Talk-show host Rush Limbaugh has compared the president to Adolf Hitler.

Amid the escalating verbal attacks, concerns about security have been building. During the health care debate last year, chaotic protests led some members of Congress to stop holding town hall meetings. The FBI reports that death threats to members of Congress tripled in the second half of 2010, mostly tied to the issue of health care.

"I don't think there's any doubt but my colleagues are very concerned about the environment in which they are now operating," Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland said Sunday on CBS' Face the Nation. "It has been a much angrier, confrontational environment over the last two or three years than we have experienced in the past."

Some representatives said limits on interacting with voters could make their jobs difficult. "I'm concerned about putting up more walls between me and the people I represent," Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., said on Fox News Sunday.

The nation's angry politics is distressing many Americans. Nearly three of four voters polled in November called the fall election one of the nastiest they had seen, according to a survey by the Allegheny College center. Nearly two-thirds called the negative tone of politics bad for democracy.

The Tucson shootings feel "like a significant moment" to a nation bruised by the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression and the bitter mid-term elections in November, said Kirk Hanson of the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University in California.

"Americans are trying to cope with diminished expectations. We will not be the richest and most successful country in the next 25 years," he said. The shootings reinforce "a soul-searching that many in Washington and around the country have been engaged in. The questions about violent rhetoric were already being asked even before the first shots were fired on Saturday."

If, as expected, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors appoints City Administrator Ed Lee interim mayor today, the city's top two political offices will be held by Asian Americans, signaling the coming of age politically of a community that accounts for nearly 1 in 3 residents in the city.

Add to the equation that San Francisco's elected public defender, assessor-recorder and four of 11 members of the Board of Supervisors - President David Chiu among them - are of Asian descent.

"You wonder when you fought in the trenches for 40 years when this day would finally arrive," said San Francisco Chinatown power broker Rose Pak, who helped orchestrate Lee's ascension to interim mayor. "Maybe there's salvation after all."

While Asians have been an integral part of the city since the mid-1800s, the first Asian American didn't serve on the Board of Supervisors until 1973, when Mayor Joe Alioto appointed George Chinn to the board. Chinn lost election to retain his seat after nine months in office. In 1977, Gordon Lau became the first Asian American to be elected to a seat on the board, but only after having been appointed earlier that year by Mayor George Moscone.

Set to make historyIt took another 17 years before an Asian American, Mabel Teng, won a supervisor's race without having been appointed first.

No Asian American has ever held the title mayor in San Francisco. Former Supervisor Tom Hsieh Sr. came the closest when he secured about 10 percent of the vote in the 1991 mayor's race. Today, two Asian American candidates have launched mayoral runs for the November election, state Sen. Leland Yee and Assessor-Recorder Phil Ting. Chiu also is seriously considering entering the race.

Lee has told supporters that he does not intend to run after he fills out the year remaining on Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom's mayoral term. And even though he is poised to enter the mayor's office as an appointee, Lee is set to make history in San Francisco.

Political maturationLee won't be the first Asian American to run a big Bay Area city. Jean Quan was elected mayor of Oakland in November, and Norm Mineta was elected mayor of San Jose in 1971.

But until now, the highest position at San Francisco City Hall "has eluded Asian Americans," said James Lai, an associate professor of political science and ethnic studies at Santa Clara University. "Whether he was appointed or elected, his becoming mayor shows the political maturation process of the community."

The roots of that maturation began in the 1950s when it became easier for Chinese Americans to become naturalized citizens. By the 1970s, nonprofit organizations centered in Chinatown began registering voters, and the numbers began to surge in the 1990s with the influx of immigrants from Hong Kong who left their homeland before the handover to communist China.

"That's when you started seeing a big difference," said David Lee, executive director of the Chinese American Voters Education Committee, which has actively registered voters.

Roughly 18 percent of the San Francisco electorate is Asian American, with about 80 percent of that group Chinese American, David Lee said. Twenty years ago, the number of Asian American voters was less than 10 percent, he said.

"For generations, before Asian Americans, particularly Chinese Americans, began voting in large numbers, their participation in politics was mainly limited to fundraising," David Lee said.

A new wave of powerThe money, he said, largely went to fund white candidates. But in the 1990s, that began to change, beginning with the election of Teng.

"You go from a marginal player where you influence politics through the back door with money to where it is today, with grassroots people power and the Asian vote," David Lee said.

Chiu, the board president, and Supervisor Eric Mar, a former school board member, benefited from the new political landscape that they helped shape with their election to the Board of Supervisors in 2008.

Supervisor Jane Kim, a Korean American who also served on the school board and whose roots are in community organizing, won election to the board in November. The board's fourth Asian American, Carmen Chu, got her start on the board as a Newsom appointee but has since won two elections. All won with strong backing from Asian American voters, David Lee said.

Building political alliancesThe notion of identity politics still runs strong in the Asian American community, where Asian American voters often will vote for Asian American candidates, Lai said.

But that is evolving as Asian American voters divide more along ideological lines and issues, building alliances with people from other communities who hold similar positions on growth, taxes, social policy and the like.

Chu, whose parents are immigrants, said she's proud to be part of the rising wave of Asian American political power, and said it wouldn't have happened without the activists who spent decades paving the way.

"It made it easier," she said, "for the next generation to get involved and get elected."

In-N-Out Burger: Building a Succession-Proof Business | View Clip01/11/2011gurufocus.com

“Keep it real simple. Do one thing and do it the best you can.” – Harry Snyder, co-founder of In-N-Out Burger In-N-Out Burger requires no introduction for residents of California, Nevada, Arizona, and Utah as well as dedicated fans in other states who often make a special point to visit one of the chain's 246 locations whenever possible. From its humble origins in 1948 at a tiny location in Baldwin Park, California, In-N-Out reached cult status through its slow growth approach of providing “quality, cleanliness, and service” to customers while maintaining an unusually good relationship with employees and suppliers. However, nothing proves the power of In-N-Out's brand more clearly than a series of disasters that left the company without good succession plans. Stacy Perman's book, In-N-Out Burger, is the definitive account of the chain's remarkable story spanning a period of over sixty years. Although company executives did not cooperate in the process, Ms. Perman was able to interview nearly 100 individuals who had intimate knowledge of the company and the personalities involved. The book is also an interesting study of the growth of the fast food industry in post-war America and the manner in which In-N-Out bucked nearly all of the prevailing industry trends. From Humble Origins to Cult Icon The last thing on Harry Snyder's mind in 1948 was the idea of building a brand worth billions of dollars. A man who flirted with communism in his youth and merely wanted to start a business to support his family was an unlikely business mogul, but from the outset, he had a special knack for spotting major trends in society and positioning his business to thrive by meeting the needs of customers. Family owned hamburger stands with car hops were a common sight in Southern California at the time, but Mr. Snyder could only afford a tiny plot of land on which to build his original store in Baldwin Park. As a result, he pioneered the concept of the drive through after tinkering with electronics and putting together a rudimentary two way speaker system. An obsessive focus on serving food of the highest quality in a clean environment to motorists pressed for time proved to be a winning formula that facilitated modest expansion during the 1950s and 1960s. Mr. Snyder's insistence on owning the land where he built his stores and taking on no debt naturally limited the scope of his expansion. In-N-Out had only 18 locations at the time of Mr. Snyder's death at age 63 in 1976. Attitude Toward Employees and Suppliers While the customer always came first for Mr. Snyder, he had an unusual attitude toward his employees and suppliers. Always referring to employees as “associates”, Mr. Snyder made a point of paying above market wages and promoting individuals who demonstrated strong abilities. In fact, Ms. Perman states that Mr. Snyder's motivation for opening additional locations was partly driven by a need to provide new management jobs for employees who had exhausted opportunities within existing locations. Calling employees “associates” is a common management fad today and is usually an utterly empty statement matching other meaningless executive jargon. However, actions speak louder than words and In-N-Out still gets hundreds of applications for each new store that opens. Squeezing suppliers is a favorite cost control technique for executives eager to optimize short run profitability, but Mr. Snyder instead chose to develop long term relationships with suppliers that have lasted many decades. Given his insistence on offering only high quality ingredients, squeezing suppliers could encourage degradation in quality which would have been unacceptable to Mr. Snyder regardless of short term profitability. Life has an interesting way of rewarding those who conduct themselves well in business and In-N-Out's suppliers went above and beyond the call of duty in 1978 when the company's warehouse and distribution center burned down. Suppliers rallied around the company and made deliveries directly to stores. An event that could have killed many similarly sized businesses didn't even slow down the company's rapid expansion. Succession-Proofing a Business When Harry Snyder died in 1976 from lung cancer at the age of 63, In-N-Out Burger already had a nearly three decade history and the company's 18 locations were extremely popular. However, the company did not have a solid succession plan in place. It would be more accurate to say that no one thought of the obvious successor: Esther Snyder, Harry's wife and constant business partner throughout In-N-Out's history. Mrs. Snyder had been involved in the business since its inception and focused on all financial matters. She was effectively the CFO of the company but no one seriously thought that she would step in to run the company. Instead, the top job went to Rich Snyder, the couple's 24 year old son. Rich Snyder eventually grew into the job and pursued a much more aggressive expansion than his father would have preferred. However, putting a 24 year old in charge of a major enterprise was a risky move. An incredibly local group of managers and a culture embedded into the operating DNA of the business gave Rich Snyder the time required to mature on the job and eventually grow the chain to around 90 locations by the time of his death in 1993. Rules, Exceptions, and Probability: What Were the Chances? Succession planning again proved a stumbling block for In-N-Out. Rich Snyder died in a plane crash along with two other top executives including his right hand man and logical successor. The company had a policy of executives not traveling together but a delayed commercial flight caused an exception to the rule. Instead of a smooth succession, Guy Snyder, Harry and Esther's other son, took over the top job as Chairman. Guy Snyder had an executive position with In-N-Out but also had a serious drug problem and had only been marginally involved with the business. Again, no one seriously considered Esther Snyder for the position. One of Ms. Perman's sources was quoted as saying that Guy Snyder knew well enough to leave a successful formula in place and did not make radical changes to the business. By all accounts, the company's rapid growth continued unabated for the next six years until Guy Snyder's death in 1999 from a drug overdose. Again, the firm was in the midst of a succession planning dilemma. Guy Snyder's sole heir, Lynsi Snyder, was only eighteen years old at the time of her father's death and was not in a position to run the business. Esther Snyder stepped in as President but was already at an advanced age at the time and in mourning due to the loss of both of her sons in tragic deaths. In-N-Out's professional management team proved able to continue the chain's growth until Ms. Snyder's death in 2006. During the same timeframe, there was a great deal of controversy (and numerous lawsuits) involving In-N-Out's management team as well as the complex web of relationships between executives and the family's financial trusts. Ultimately, the company continued to thrive throughout the succession drama and in early 2010, Lynsi Snyder (Martinez) took her place as President of In-N-Out. Building a Moat One can view the succession situation at In-N-Out like barbarians at the gate of a medieval castle. The fast food industry is intensely competitive and larger companies have far greater financial resources than In-N-Out. Any weakness or missteps in running the company would be quickly seized upon by competitors to gain an advantage. Why did this not happen to In-N-Out in 1976, 1993, 1999, or 2006? The answer to the question involves the company's durable moat keeping the barbarians away. The company culture was such that any attempt to lower quality or cut corners would have been vigorously contested much like a healthy human body fights off the effect of a common cold. The loyal customers (or “cultists” if one prefers) stood by the company throughout all of these periods due to the knowledge that high quality and service would not be sacrificed. Even at times when Guy Snyder was absent from the company during 1990s due to drug problems, the status quo was good enough to keep the moat intact. Not many businesses could have survived the traumas afflicting In-N-Out, much less continue to thrive and expand. In-N-Out recently announced a major expansion into Texas which involves a new distribution center due to the company's commitment to use only fresh ingredients. There is no sign that the company intends to begin franchising or to take the company public. Instead, the slow growth approach that has worked so well over the past sixty years appears to be set to continue for decades to come. Ms. Perman's book is a valuable contribution and should be required reading for anyone interested in how great brands are built. Ravi Nagarajan is a private investor and Editor of The Rational Walk website. Ravi focuses on applying value investing techniques to find securities trading well below intrinsic business value. Ravi has over 15 years of experience in the financial markets and started investing on a full time basis in 2009. From 1996 to 2009, Ravi held a number of technical and executive level positions in the commercial software industry. Ravi graduated Summa Cum Laude from Santa Clara University with a degree in finance. Visit his website The Rational Walk

Some mothers and daughters bond over pedicures, shopping for handbags or taking in the latest rom-com at the cineplex.

Carol and Katie McCollam prefer helping out at the Special Olympics. Pam and Caroline Elmets enjoy spending hours filling lunch bags to overflowing with bagels and cream cheese, yogurt, granola and cheese sticks for homeless children.

Each mother-daughter team receives their assignments from the National Charity League, a nationwide nonprofit organization that fosters bonding through volunteerism. Sacramento is one of 12 chapters in Northern California.

The daughters, dubbed Ticktockers, begin volunteering in seventh grade and continue for six years. The Patronesses, also known as moms, and daughters spend 15 hours volunteering and 15 hours on league work - including meetings and organization projects � each year. League hours drop to 10 for senior girls.

The group's membership application period runs through March 15.

The goal is to not only create a stronger mother-daughter bond but also to provide community service, leadership development and cultural experiences, said Pam Elmets, who heads the Sacramento chapter of 90 mothers and 99 daughters.

Elmets has been in the league since 2002 and has about three more years to go with her soon-to-be 14-year-old daughter, Caroline. Elmets began participating with daughter Lauren, now 21, at a friend's suggestion.

"My daughters are very fortunate, and I think it's important for them to help those who are less fortunate," she said. "Instilling value at an early age is a good thing."

Lauren Elmets, a junior at Santa Clara University, said the lessons she learned while volunteering at St. John's Shelter Program for Women and Children and chairing the annual carnival for shelter residents helped her learn how to communicate more with people and gave her a better understanding of the trials and triumphs of others.

"Being able to have that experience has made my life a lot better," she said.

For Carol McCallum, volunteering alongside her daughter has helped her forge an even closer relationship with 17-year-old Katie and from the beginning allowed McCallum to watch her daughter's compassion, sensitivity and empathy flourish.

The pair clocked their first round of NCL hours at the Special Olympics, helping direct athletes in the lunch line.

"My daughter is a little on the quiet side and hadn't had much interaction with people with special needs," McCallum said. "Within an hour's time, it was so wonderful watching her comfort level completely change. She was putting her arms around the athletes' shoulders, asking them if they'd like a drink and helping them."

When her daughter was in eighth grade, McCallum served as the league's liaison to the Albert Einstein Residence Center, a low-income senior housing facility in the Arden area.

She asked Katie and a fellow Ticktocker if they'd like to create an activities program for the entire residence, since the center didn't have an activities director at the time.

Katie and her cohort developed a plan, created a Powerpoint presentation and presented their concept to the center's board of residents and staff.

"I've never been so proud in my life," Carol McCallum said. "It brought tears to my eyes watching them speak in front of those seniors."

The center adopted several of the girls' suggested activities, and it later spurred the hiring of an activities director, she said.

Since then, the McCallums have volunteered repeatedly at the Special Olympics and made lunches or snacks monthly for homeless children at Mustard Seed School at Loaves & Fishes.

Katie McCallum is now volunteering with Women's Empowerment, a nonprofit offering an eight-week job-readiness program for homeless women and leading a clothing drive for the group at Casa Roble High School as part of her senior project. Carol McCallum will be mentoring a Women's Empowerment participant.

"This has been a six-year reminder of how much we should be thankful for and how much we should give to others who don't have much to be thankful for," Carol McCallum said.

Katie McCallum said the memories made while volunteering with her mom are among her most cherished.

"We've had a lot of fun times," she said. "We volunteered before NCL, but I think this has kept us on track when our lives might have veered apart."

In a time where pennies are being squeezed by local governments, police departments are looking at ways to use officers more effectively, especially when combating gangs.

"They've found out exactly what law enforcement is doing, and they are innovative in ways that's even tough for us to keep up with," Friend said. "We feel that using models like this will help us keep one step ahead."

Mohler said he hopes to release his findings to Santa Cruz police in about a month.